Import-Csv and Export-Csv PowerShell cmdlets

Many times we need to export data in CSV files and read specific information from it. Best example would be log files which contain lots of data but we want to read some specific information from it like Errors, Warnings etc.

In this small article I’ll explain how we can export data to csv files using Export-CSV cmdlets and import csv files and read specific information from it using Import-CSV cmdlets.

Export-Csv

This command will export data into csv file. In below example I exported latest 100 Application event log entries to logs.csv file.

Get-EventLog Application -Newest 100 | Export-Csv logs.csv

You can verify data inside csv file using below command.

Get-Content logs.csv

Import-Csv

This command will import data from CSV file. You can specify delimiter and headers to load only selected columns from csv file.

Script –

#specify path

$path = "C:\PowerShell\logs.csv"

#import csv file and specify specific columns you want to import using -Header

$file = Import-Csv $path -Delimiter ","

#$file

#loop all the rows in file

foreach ($row in $file)

{

    #condition to read only Errors

    if ($row.EntryType -like '*Error*')

    {

        Write-Host "---------------------------------------------"

        Write-Host $row.EntryType

        Write-Host $row.TimeGenerated

        Write-Host $row.Message

        Write-Host "---------------------------------------------"

    }

}

Output –

You can download code from Gist.

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Reference –

MSDN

See Also –

Read data from Excel file using PowerShell script

Get-Process cmdlet in PowerShell

Date Time operations with PowerShell