I would like remove all quotations character in my exported csv file, it's very annoying when i generated a new csv file and i need to manually to remove all the quotations that include in the string. Could anyone provide me a Powershell script to overcome this problem? Thanks.
$File = "c:\programfiles\programx\file.csv"
(Get-Content $File) | Foreach-Object {
$_ -replace """, ""
} | Set-Content $File
Next time you make one, export-csv in powershell 7 has a new option you may like:
export-csv -UseQuotes AsNeeded
It seems many of us have already explained that quotes are sometimes needed in CSV files. This is the case when:
With PS version 7 you have the option to use parameter -UseQuotes AsNeeded.
For older versions I made this helper function to convert to CSV using only quotes when needed:
function ConvertTo-CsvNoQuotes {
# returns a csv delimited string array with values unquoted unless needed
[OutputType('System.Object[]')]
[CmdletBinding(DefaultParameterSetName = 'ByDelimiter')]
param (
[Parameter(Mandatory = $true, ValueFromPipeline = $true, ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName = $true, Position = 0)]
[PSObject]$InputObject,
[Parameter(Position = 1, ParameterSetName = 'ByDelimiter')]
[char]$Delimiter = ',',
[Parameter(ParameterSetName = 'ByCulture')]
[switch]$UseCulture,
[switch]$NoHeaders,
[switch]$IncludeTypeInformation # by default, this function does NOT include type information
)
begin {
if ($UseCulture) { $Delimiter = (Get-Culture).TextInfo.ListSeparator }
# regex to test if a string contains a double quote, the delimiter character,
# newlines or has whitespace at the beginning or the end of the string.
# if that is the case, the value needs to be quoted.
$needQuotes = '^\s|["{0}\r\n]|\s$' -f [regex]::Escape($Delimiter)
# a boolean to check if we have output the headers or not from the object(s)
# and another to check if we have output type information or not
$doneHeaders = $doneTypeInfo = $false
}
process {
foreach($item in $InputObject) {
if (!$doneTypeInfo -and $IncludeTypeInformation) {
'#TYPE {0}' -f $item.GetType().FullName
$doneTypeInfo = $true
}
if (!$doneHeaders -and !$NoHeaders) {
$row = $item.PsObject.Properties | ForEach-Object {
# if needed, wrap the value in quotes and double any quotes inside
if ($_.Name -match $needQuotes) { '"{0}"' -f ($_.Name -replace '"', '""') } else { $_.Name }
}
$row -join $Delimiter
$doneHeaders = $true
}
$item | ForEach-Object {
$row = $_.PsObject.Properties | ForEach-Object {
# if needed, wrap the value in quotes and double any quotes inside
if ($_.Value -match $needQuotes) { '"{0}"' -f ($_.Value -replace '"', '""') } else { $_.Value }
}
$row -join $Delimiter
}
}
}
}
Using your example to remove the unnecessary quotes in an existing CSV file:
$File = "c:\programfiles\programx\file.csv"
(Import-Csv $File) | ConvertTo-CsvNoQuotes | Set-Content $File
keeping in mind that this may trash your data if you have embedded double quotes in your data, here is yet another variation on the idea ... [grin]
what it does ...
*.tmp files from the temp dir the code ...
$TestCSV = "$env:TEMP\Ted.Xiong_-_Test.csv"
$CleanedTestCSV = $TestCSV -replace 'Test', 'CleanedTest'
Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $env:TEMP -Filter '*.tmp' -File |
Select-Object -Property Name, LastWriteTime, Length -First 3 |
Export-Csv -LiteralPath $TestCSV -NoTypeInformation
(Get-Content -LiteralPath $TestCSV) -replace '"', '' |
Set-Content -LiteralPath $CleanedTestCSV
Get-Content -LiteralPath $TestCSV
'=' * 30
Get-Content -LiteralPath $CleanedTestCSV
output ...
"Name","LastWriteTime","Length"
"hd4130E.tmp","2020-03-13 5:23:06 PM","0"
"hd418D4.tmp","2020-03-12 11:47:59 PM","0"
"hd41F7D.tmp","2020-03-13 5:23:09 PM","0"
==============================
Name,LastWriteTime,Length
hd4130E.tmp,2020-03-13 5:23:06 PM,0
hd418D4.tmp,2020-03-12 11:47:59 PM,0
hd41F7D.tmp,2020-03-13 5:23:09 PM,0
Why are you manually in a text editor read Csv files?
You exported them to that format for a reason. To read them, just import them back in and view them on screen and or Read them back in and send the readout to notepad for reading.
Export-Csv -Path D:\temp\book1.csv
Import-Csv -Path D:\temp\book1.csv |
Clip |
Notepad # then press crtl+v, then save the notepad file with a new name.
If you don't want Csv, then don't export as Csv, just output as a flat-file, using Out-File instead.
Update
Since your last comment to me indicated your final use case. CSV into SQL is a very common thing. A quick web search will show you how even provide you with a script. You should also be looking at the PowerShell DBATools module.
How to import data from .csv in SQL Server using PowerShell?
Importing CSV files into a Microsoft SQL DB using PowerShell
Four Easy Ways to Import CSV Files to SQL Server with PowerShell
Find-Module -Name '*dba*'
<#
Version Name Repository Description
------- ---- ---------- -----------
1.0.101 dbatools PSGallery The community module that enables SQL Server Pros to automate database development and server administration
...
#>
Update
You mean this...
Get-Content 'D:\temp\book1.csv'
<#
# Results
"Site","Dept"
"Main","aaa,bbb,ccc"
"Branch1","ddd,eee,fff"
"Branch2","ggg,hhh,iii"
#>
Get-ChildItem -Path 'D:\temp' -Filter 'book1.csv' |
ForEach {
$NewFile = New-Item -Path 'D:\Temp' -Name "$($PSItem.BaseName).txt"
Get-Content -Path $PSItem.FullName |
ForEach-Object {
Add-Content -Path $NewFile -Value ($PSItem -replace '"') -WhatIf
}
}
<#
What if: Performing the operation "Add Content" on target "Path: D:\Temp\book1.txt".
What if: Performing the operation "Add Content" on target "Path: D:\Temp\book1.txt".
What if: Performing the operation "Add Content" on target "Path: D:\Temp\book1.txt".
What if: Performing the operation "Add Content" on target "Path: D:\Temp\book1.txt"
#>
Get-ChildItem -Path 'D:\temp' -Filter 'book1.csv' |
ForEach {
$NewFile = New-Item -Path 'D:\Temp' -Name "$($PSItem.BaseName).txt"
Get-Content -Path $PSItem.FullName |
ForEach-Object {
Add-Content -Path $NewFile -Value ($PSItem -replace '"')
}
}
Get-Content 'D:\temp\book1.txt'
<#
# Results
Site,Dept
Main,aaa,bbb,ccc
Branch1,ddd,eee,fff
Branch2,ggg,hhh,iii
#>
Of course, you need to use a wildcard for the csv files and use the -Resurse to get all directories and an error handler to make sure you don't have file name collisions.
As above, the quotations are valid for csv, but to remove them you need to escape the quote mark in the replace operation as is a special character:
$File = "c:\programfiles\programx\file.csv"
(Get-Content $File) | Foreach-Object {
$_ -replace "`"", ""
} | Set-Content $File
After you have exported the CSV file with Export-CSV, you can use Get-Content to load the CSV file into an array of strings, then use Set-Content and replace to remove the quotation marks:
Set-Content -Path sample.csv -Value ((Get-Content -Path sample.csv) -replace '"')
As mklement0 helpfully pointed out, this could potentially corrupt the CSV if some lines need quoting. This solution simply goes through the whole file and replaces every quote with ''.
You could also speed this up with using the -Raw switch with Get-Content, which returns a whole string with the newlines preserved, instead of an array of newline delimited strings:
Set-Content -NoNewline -Path sample.csv -Value ((Get-Content -Raw -Path sample.csv) -replace '"')
One solution for dont remove the double quote into the string quoted :
$delimiter=","
$InputFile="c:\programfiles\programx\file.csv"
$OutputFile="c:\programfiles\programx\resultfile.csv"
#import file in variable (not necessary if your faile is big repeat this import where i use $ContentFile)
$ContentFile=import-csv $InputFile -Delimiter $delimiter -Encoding utf8
#list of property of csv file
$properties=($ContentFile | select -First 1 | Get-Member -MemberType NoteProperty).Name
#write header into new file
$properties -join $delimiter | Out-File $OutputFile -Encoding utf8
#write data into new file
$ContentFile | %{
$RowObject=$_ #==> get row object
$Line=@() #==> create array
$properties | %{$Line+=$RowObject."$_"} #==> Loop on every property, take value (without quote) inot row object
$Line -join $delimiter #==> join array for get line with delimer and send to standard outut
} | Out-File $OutputFile -Encoding utf8 -Append #==> export result to output file
An extra double quote can be used to escape a double quote in a string:
$File = "c:\programfiles\programx\file.csv"
(Get-Content $File) | Foreach-Object { $_ -replace """", "" } | Set-Content $File
