New file as output - how to create it in PowerShell

Question

So I have this input file (no file extension):

0         1         2         3         4         5      ###6####    _7______   8         9         0         1         2         3      ###4##__
012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456
0202XXXX TESTS1                   XX          DRN        CODE123      010TESTS          0000000001481500000014832000000148150000001481700000014832+
0202XXXX TESTS1                   TEST11      DRN        CODE123      010TESTS          0000000000336400000003364000000033640000000336400000003364+
0202XXXX TESTS1                   XXX YYYYYY  PN      N2 CODE123      010TESTS          0000000000118500000001206000000011600000000118300000001205+
0202XXXX TESTS1                   ZZZZZZZZZ   DRN        CODE123      010TESTS          0000000004188300000041883000000412400000004156200000041240+
0202XXXX TESTS1                   PPP MKLRTR  PN         CODE123      010TESTS          0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000/
0202XXXX TESTS1                   GGG TEST    ON  ED     CODE123      010TESTS          0000000000095000000001024000000009500000000098700000001024-

And I´d like to get three values from there and print on a new file with a specific formatting.

I´m trying using the substring option, but I am not able to see the results on output file as I expect, so what could be wrong with this code?

I expect to see the output as:

         1         2         3         4         5
1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345
                 CODE123                          17.98
                 CODE12                            2.37
                 CODE                              2.70
                 CODE12                            2.73
                 CODE123                          13.39

But using the below code I´m getting the result without columns. It´s all messed up in one line.

$InputFile = D:\Test\inputfile.txt
$outFile = D:\Test\outfile.txt
$Pattern = "010TESTS"
$spaces1 = "                     ";
$spaces2 = "                    ";
$dot = "."
$rec = 0

(gc $InputFile) | ? {$_.trim() -ne "" } | Select-String -pattern $Pattern -AllMatches | Set-Content $outFile

$file = gc $outFile

$Test = $file.Substring(69, 8)  # This should give me the value 010TESTS

foreach ($line in $file) {

    if ($Test -eq "010TESTS") {

        $Value1 = $file.Substring(57, 8)
        $Value2 = $file.Substring(137, 6).TrimStart('0') # To remove leading zeroes
        $Value3 = $file.Substring(143, 2)

        if (! ($Value1 -eq "" -and $Value2 -eq "00")) {

            # Here I need the values on each line
            $FinalFile += ($spaces1 + $Value1 + $spaces2 + $Value2 + $dot + $Value3).Split("`n")   
        }
    }
}

$FinalFile | Set-Content $outFile

Are $file (the input array) and $File (the output string) supposed to be distinct variables? PowerShell is case-insensitive. — Ryan Bemrose
– Ryan Bemrose, Commented May 9, 2017 at 19:44
If you need a fixed format for the output file, I strongly recommend that you explore the -f operator — Jeff Zeitlin
– Jeff Zeitlin, Commented May 9, 2017 at 19:49
Also, you're only setting $Test once outside the loop. Because its value never changes inside the loop, the if() takes the same branch every time. — Ryan Bemrose
– Ryan Bemrose, Commented May 9, 2017 at 19:49
Good catch @Ryan Bemrose, just fixed the variables names. Humm, will take a look at the $Test you mentioned, thank you. — DevHawk
– DevHawk, Commented May 9, 2017 at 20:09
You can't have D:\Test as an input file and at the same time a directory D:\Test when creating the output file. — user6811411
– user6811411, Commented May 9, 2017 at 20:17

score 1 · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-10 12:55:02Z

1

your substring offsets don't match your sample data
to check the offsets you should (at least) temporarily insert a ruler
to fill a defined length string with spaces simply do $spaces = " " * 21
but as you were told better use a -f format string for output, see script.
instead of fiddling with two values and inserting a dot, simply get the whole range and divide by 100 (leading zeroes are ignored)

$InputFile = 'D:\Test\inputfile.txt'
$outFile =   'D:\Test\outfile.txt'
$Pattern = "010TESTS"

Get-Content $InputFile | Select-String -Pattern $Pattern | ForEach-Object {
    $Line = [string]$_
    $Line.Substring(70, 8)  #this should give me the value 010TESTS
    $Value1 = $Line.Substring(57, 8)
    $Value2 = [double]$Line.Substring(137, 8) / 100

    if ( $Value1 -and $Value2 ) {
      "{0,25}{1,30:N2}" -f $Value1,$Value2 | Out-File $OutFile -Append
    }
}

$_ contains the line currently processed by the Forach-Object
[string] casts (converts) to a string, which is a requirement for .substring
the first number in curly brackets represents the order in which the vars follow the -f
the second number in curly brackets following the comma denotes the places the var will seize (negative numbers mean left justified, positive right justified)
following the colon is a format specifier (see Jeff Zeitlin's link) N2 means a floating point number with 2 decimal places.

This sample output has due to my locale a decimal comma. (ruler added manually)

         1         2         3         4         5     
1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345
                 CODE123                          14,83
                 CODE123                           3,36
                 CODE123                           1,20
                 CODE123                          41,24
                 CODE123                           1,02

edited May 10, 2017 at 12:55

answered May 9, 2017 at 21:36

user6811411

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3 Comments

DevHawk Over a year ago

LotPings thank you so much for the valuable tips, I don´t know the -f formatting very well but will have to study, so what does it mean exactly in this code? "{0,25}{1,30:N2}" Also I did not understand this part, what does it do? $Line = [string]$_

user6811411 Over a year ago

Added some comments to your questions.

DevHawk Over a year ago

Perfect! It all makes sense now, thanks a lot again for the explanation, helped a bunch.

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