{"id":12181,"date":"2011-11-05T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2011-11-05T00:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.technet.microsoft.com\/heyscriptingguy\/2011\/11\/05\/use-powershell-to-read-csv-files-and-create-files-and-folders\/"},"modified":"2011-11-05T00:01:00","modified_gmt":"2011-11-05T00:01:00","slug":"use-powershell-to-read-csv-files-and-create-files-and-folders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/use-powershell-to-read-csv-files-and-create-files-and-folders\/","title":{"rendered":"Use PowerShell to Read CSV Files and Create Files and Folders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary:<\/strong> Learn how to use Windows PowerShell to read CSV files and create files and folders.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Microsoft Scripting Guy Ed Wilson here. This past week has been fun. I enjoy talking about comma-separated value files (CSV) because they are very flexible, and Windows PowerShell makes working with them really easy. <\/span><\/p>\n

One of the cool things that can be done using a CSV file was only alluded to in yesterday’s post, <\/span>Use a CSV File to Populate Parameters of PowerShell Cmdlets<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In yesterday’s article, I piped information from a CSV file to the Get-WmiObject<\/b> cmdlet. The problem is that the Get-WmiObject<\/b> cmdlet does not accept piped input for either the class <\/i>or computername <\/i>parameter. <\/span><\/p>\n

However, the New-Item<\/b> cmdlet does accept piped input. When a cmdlet accepts piped input, it will automatically match column names from a CSV file with parameter names of the cmdlet receiving the piped input. This allows for some extremely powerful scenarios. Here are the steps for this scenario:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Create a CSV file that uses column headings that are the same as the parameter names for the cmdlet to use.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Use the Import-CSV<\/b> cmdlet to read the CSV file and to create a custom object from that file.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Pipe the results to a cmdlet that accepts piped input.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Suppose I create a CSV file that contains a file system layout. In that file, I specify the name of the folder and the names of files I want to create in that folder. I use the column names of path<\/b> and itemtype<\/b> because those are the parameter names used by the New-Item<\/b> cmdlet. A sample CSV file that meets these requirements is shown in the following figure<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"Image<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

    After I have created my file, the Windows PowerShell command itself is trivial. I use the Import-CSV<\/b> cmdlet to read the CSV file, and I pipe the results to the New-Item<\/b> cmdlet. This command is shown here:<\/span><\/p>\n

    Import-Csv C:\\fso\\FilesAndFolders.csv | New-Item<\/span><\/p>\n

    The use of the command to read a CSV file and create files and folders along with the associated output are shown in the following figure.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"Image<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

    When this command runs, the following is displayed in Windows Explorer.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"Image<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

    That is about all there is to reading a CSV file and automatically creating files and folders. Given the Windows PowerShell providers that work with New-Item<\/b>, this one scenario and one cmdlet provide lots of possibilities. And this is only one cmdlet. I will leave it to you to explore and see what you can come up with. Let me know. <\/span><\/p>\n

    I invite you to follow me on <\/span>Twitter<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Facebook<\/span><\/a>. If you have any questions, send email to me at <\/span>scripter@microsoft.com<\/span><\/a>, or post your questions on the <\/span>Official Scripting Guys Forum<\/span><\/a>. See you tomorrow. Until then, peace.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/span><\/p>\n

    Ed Wilson, Microsoft Scripting Guy<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

    <\/span> <\/p>\n

     <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Summary: Learn how to use Windows PowerShell to read CSV files and create files and folders.   Microsoft Scripting Guy Ed Wilson here. This past week has been fun. I enjoy talking about comma-separated value files (CSV) because they are very flexible, and Windows PowerShell makes working with them really easy. One of the cool […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":596,"featured_media":87096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[169,3,4,61,45],"class_list":["post-12181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scripting","tag-csv-and-other-delimited-files","tag-scripting-guy","tag-scripting-techniques","tag-weekend-scripter","tag-windows-powershell"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":"

    Summary: Learn how to use Windows PowerShell to read CSV files and create files and folders.   Microsoft Scripting Guy Ed Wilson here. This past week has been fun. I enjoy talking about comma-separated value files (CSV) because they are very flexible, and Windows PowerShell makes working with them really easy. One of the cool […]<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/596"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}