How to Parse Lines from a Text File in PowerShell and Save to CSV

Описание: Learn how to efficiently parse specific lines from text files using PowerShell and save the results to a CSV file, streamlining your data management process.
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Efficiently Parse Lines from a Text File in PowerShell and Save to CSV

If you're delving into PowerShell and need to extract specific data from text files, you're not alone! Many users face the challenge of parsing lines from text files and wanting to save those results in a more structured format, like a CSV file. In this guide, we’ll tackle how to parse a workstation ID from a text file located on remote computers and save that information along with the computer name into a CSV format.

The Problem: Extracting Workstation IDs

Imagine you have a list of computers, and you need to gather specific information from a configuration file on each of these systems. For instance, you want to obtain the WorkStationID from a text file located at c$\iSeries\ACSC.ws. Given the text structure provided, here’s what you need to accomplish:

Read a list of computer names from a text file.

Access a specific file on each computer to retrieve the WorkStationID.

Save the computer name and its corresponding workstation ID in a CSV file for easy reference later on.

Solution: A PowerShell Script

The following PowerShell script accomplishes the task efficiently. Before you begin, ensure your user account has access to the administrative shares on the computers you want to query (i.e., c$ share). Here’s how the script works:

Step 1: Read the Computer Names

The script starts by reading the list of computer names from the specified text file.

Step 2: Access the Remote Text File

For each computer, it constructs a file path to the remote configuration file.

Step 3: Extract WorkStationID

Using the Get-Content command, it retrieves the content of the desired file and employs regex to match the line containing WorkStationID, effectively extracting the requisite information.

Step 4: Save to CSV

Finally, it organizes the results into a structured format (using pscustomobject) and writes everything to an output CSV file.

Here’s the Full Script

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Explanation of the Script Components

Get-Content: Reads the content of the specified file (list of computers).

Foreach-Object: Iterates through each computer name.

FilePath Construction: Constructs the path to access the workstation configuration file for each computer.

Regular Expressions: -match 'WorkStationID=' identifies the relevant line, while -replace 'WorkStationID=' strips out the prefix, leaving just the ID.

pscustomobject: Creates a custom object for each entry containing the computer name and the corresponding workstation ID.

Export-Csv: Exports the collected data to a CSV file named output.csv.

Conclusion

This PowerShell script offers an effective way to parse specific data from text files across multiple computers and save that data in a structured format, like CSV. By automating the data collection process, you can enhance efficiency and accuracy in your reporting. Whether you're managing a small network or handling larger systems, developing scripts like these can significantly streamline your workflow. If you have any questions or further improvements, feel free to leave a comment below!