How to add a new line to an exisiting text file using PowerShell and insert the file name

Question

Hi all,

I'm new to PowerShell and my predecessor had written a scrip to alter text files to make them readable to upload to our cloud system.

He took the file, changed the months "text" into "numbers" and re-saved it in a new folder. The script looks like this:

Get-ChildItem "C:\Users\byveld-m\Desktop\Batch Test\Processed*.txt" | where {$.Name -match ".txt"} | % {((Get-Content $) -replace "`t", ";" -replace "January", "01" -replace "February", "02" -replace "March", "03" -replace "April", "04" -replace "May", "05" -replace "June", "06" -replace "July", "07" -replace "August", "08" -replace "September", "09" -replace "October", "10" -replace "November", "11" -replace "December", "12") | Set-Content "C:\Users\byveld-m\Desktop\Batch Test\Processed\Upload\$($_.Name)"

What I'm trying to figure out is how I can add a header row with the files name in it.

The current txt file is called AHU1_Supply_Temp_RecordedData.txt and displays straight away the following lines:

19 March 2018 14:15:00 10.8300
19 March 2018 14:30:00 10.6500

However, what I need is for the text file to display the following:

AHU1_Supply_Temp_RecordedData
19 03 2018 14:15:00;10.8300
19 03 2018 14:30:00;10.6500

How can I go about achieving this?

Answer 1

Hello @Chloe Jarman !
Does this work for you?

$srcPath = "C:\Users\byveld-m\Desktop\Batch Test\Processed*.txt"  
$dstPath = "C:\Users\byveld-m\Desktop\Batch Test\Processed\Upload\"  
Get-Item -Path $srcPath |  
ForEach-Object {  
  New-Item -Path $dstPath -Name $_.Name -ItemType "file" -Value "$($_.BaseName)`n" -Force  
  (Get-Content $_) -replace "`t", ";" -replace "January", "01" -replace "February", "02" -replace "March", "03" -replace "April", "04" -replace "May", "05" -replace "June", "06" -replace "July", "07" -replace "August", "08" -replace "September", "09" -replace "October", "10" -replace "November", "11" -replace "December", "12" |  
  Add-Content -Path "$dstPath$($_.Name)"  
}  

Best whishes

---
If this Answer works for you, accept and upvote it please.

Answer 2

Here's another take on this:

$srcPath = "C:\Users\byveld-m\Desktop\Batch Test\Processed*.txt"
$dstPath = "C:\Users\byveld-m\Desktop\Batch Test\Processed\Upload\"
Get-Item -Path $srcPath |
    ForEach-Object {
        $new = New-Item -Path $dstPath -Name $_.Name -ItemType "file" -Value "$($_.BaseName)`n" -Force
        Get-Content $_ |
            ForEach-Object {
                $s = $_ -split "`t"
                #  day   month   year    hour  minute second
                "{0:dd} {0:MM} {0:yyyy} {0:hh}:{0:mm}:{0:ss};{1}" -f [DateTime]$s[0], $s[1] |
                    Add-Content -Path $new.FullName
            }
    }