How to export data to CSV in PowerShell? - powershell

Question

foreach ($computer in $computerlist) {
if((Test-Connection -Cn $computer -BufferSize 16 -Count 1 -ea 0 -quiet))
{
foreach ($file in $REMOVE) {
Remove-Item "\\$computer\$DESTINATION\$file" -Recurse
Copy-Item E:\Code\powershell\shortcuts\* "\\$computer\$DESTINATION\"
}
} else {
Write-Host "\\$computer\$DESTINATION\"
}
}
I want to export Write-Host "\$computer\$DESTINATION\" to the CSV files so I know which computers were offline when the script ran.
I am running this from a Windows 7 machine

Answer 1

This solution creates a psobject and adds each object to an array, it then creates the csv by piping the contents of the array through Export-CSV.
$results = #()
foreach ($computer in $computerlist) {
if((Test-Connection -Cn $computer -BufferSize 16 -Count 1 -ea 0 -quiet))
{
foreach ($file in $REMOVE) {
Remove-Item "\\$computer\$DESTINATION\$file" -Recurse
Copy-Item E:\Code\powershell\shortcuts\* "\\$computer\$DESTINATION\"
}
} else {
$details = #{
Date = get-date
ComputerName = $Computer
Destination = $Destination
}
$results += New-Object PSObject -Property $details
}
}
$results | export-csv -Path c:\temp\so.csv -NoTypeInformation
If you pipe a string object to a csv you will get its length written to the csv, this is because these are properties of the string, See here for more information.
This is why I create a new object first.
Try the following:
write-output "test" | convertto-csv -NoTypeInformation
This will give you:
"Length"
"4"
If you use the Get-Member on Write-Output as follows:
write-output "test" | Get-Member -MemberType Property
You will see that it has one property - 'length':
TypeName: System.String
Name MemberType Definition
---- ---------- ----------
Length Property System.Int32 Length {get;}
This is why Length will be written to the csv file.
Update: Appending a CSV
Not the most efficient way if the file gets large...
$csvFileName = "c:\temp\so.csv"
$results = #()
if (Test-Path $csvFileName)
{
$results += Import-Csv -Path $csvFileName
}
foreach ($computer in $computerlist) {
if((Test-Connection -Cn $computer -BufferSize 16 -Count 1 -ea 0 -quiet))
{
foreach ($file in $REMOVE) {
Remove-Item "\\$computer\$DESTINATION\$file" -Recurse
Copy-Item E:\Code\powershell\shortcuts\* "\\$computer\$DESTINATION\"
}
} else {
$details = #{
Date = get-date
ComputerName = $Computer
Destination = $Destination
}
$results += New-Object PSObject -Property $details
}
}
$results | export-csv -Path $csvFileName -NoTypeInformation

Answer 2

simply use the Out-File cmd but DON'T forget to give an encoding type:
-Encoding UTF8
so use it so:
$log | Out-File -Append C:\as\whatever.csv -Encoding UTF8
-Append is required if you want to write in the file more then once.

Answer 3

what you are searching for is the Export-Csv file.csv
try using Get-Help Export-Csv to see whats possible
also Out-File -FilePath "file.csv" will work

Answer 4

You can always use the
echo "Column1`tColumn2`tColumn3..." >> results.csv
You will need to put "`t" between the columns to separates the variables into their own column. Here is the way I wrote my script:
echo "Host`tState" >> results.csv
$names = Get-Content "hostlist.txt"
foreach ($name in $names) {
$count = 0
$count2 = 13490
if ( Test-Connection -ComputerName $name -Count 1 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue ) {
echo "$name`tUp" >> results.csv
}
else {
echo "$name`tDown" >> results.csv
}
$count++
Write-Progress -Activity "Gathering Information" -status "Pinging Hosts..." -percentComplete ($count / $count2 *100)
}
This is the easiest way to me. The output I get is :
Host|State
----------
H1 |Up
H2 |UP
H3 |Down
You can play around with the look, but that's the basic idea. The $count is just a progress bar if you want to spice up the look