Sometimes it’s the little things that can make life easier. Here’s one of them. We know that PowerShell treats comma separated items as an array:<\/p>\n
PS C:\\> $a=”a”,1,”b”,”jeff”,4<\/font><\/p>\n PS C:\\> $a But what if you want back in its original comma delimited list? Or suppose you wanted to create a comma delimited line of all running services? Export-CSV<\/strong> isn’t really going to help in these situations. I came up with function called Out-CSV.<\/p>\n The function uses the Begin\/Process\/End script blocks so it can accept pipelined input. The function is pretty simple. It merely concatenates each item into a comma delimited string.<\/p>\n PS C:\\> $a | out-csv Out-CSV needs strings so to work with other cmdlets takes a little extra work.<\/p>\n PS C:\\> get-service | where {$_.status -eq “running”} | foreach {$_.name} | out-csv<\/font><\/p>\n This will create comma separated list of all running services.Granted, the need for such a list may be limited but if you need it, now you have a tool to get it.<\/p>\n
a
1
b
jeff
4
PS C:\\><\/font> <\/p>\nFunction out-csv {<\/pre>\nBEGIN { <\/pre>\n #probably not necessary<\/span><\/pre>\n [string]$csv=\"\"<\/span><\/pre>\n}<\/pre>\n
PROCESS {<\/pre>\n #force each item to be a string and trim any spaces<\/span><\/pre>\n $item=($_ | out-string).Trim()<\/pre>\n
if<\/span> ($csv) {<\/pre>\n $csv+=\",\"<\/span> + $item<\/pre>\n }<\/pre>\n
else<\/span> {<\/pre>\n #first item in the string<\/span><\/pre>\n $csv=$item<\/pre>\n
}<\/pre>\n
}<\/pre>\n
END {<\/pre>\n #send the comma separated string into the pipeline<\/span><\/pre>\n write $csv <\/pre>\n
}<\/pre>\n
}<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
a,1,b,jeff,4<\/font> <\/p>\n