Powershell to clean up a file

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question

AJ-AJ asked Dec 1, '21 AJ-AJ edited Dec 2, '21

Powershell to clean up a file

Hi there,

I'm requesting help on powershell script to clean up a input file and write to an output file.

Contents of the input.txt file are..

abcd
cdef
["abcd"]
["ab
cd"]

 ["efgh"]

xyz

Expected OUTPUT.txt file

abcd
cdef
["abcd"]
["abcd"]

 ["efgh"]

xyz

Wanted to suggest the criteria to clean up the file is
If a line contains start square bracket but does not end with square bracket, then concatenate the next line to current line.

Looking forward Appreciate your help towards script.

Thanks.

windows-server-powershell

5 |1600 characters needed characters left characters exceeded

Attachments: Up to 10 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 3.0 MiB each and 30.0 MiB total.

Answer 1 · 2021-12-01T20:57:55.38Z

RichMatheisen-8856 answered Dec 1, '21 AJ-AJ commented Dec 2, '21

Assuming you don't have a sequence like this that extends over more than two adjacent lines:

[ab
cd
ef]

Then this should work:

 $file = "c:\junk\test.txt"
 $BufferedLine = $null
    
 Get-Content $file |
     ForEach-Object {
         if ($_ -match "^[^[].*[^]]$") {
             # line doesn't begin with "[" or end with "]"
             $_                                  # -- line is okay, just return it
         }
         elseif ($_ -match "^\[.*\]$") {
             # line begins with "[" and ends with "]"
             $_                                  # -- line is okay, just return it
         }
         elseif ($_ -match "^\[.*[^]]$") {       # line begins with "[" but doesn't end with "]"
             $BufferedLine = $_                  # remember line as beginning
         }
         elseif ($_ -match "^[^[].*\]$") {
             # line doesn't begin with "[" but ends with "]"
             if ($BufferedLine) {                # AND there's a preceeding line awaiting closure
                 $BufferedLine += $_             # concatenate with contents of previous line
                 $BufferedLine                   # return completed line
                 $BufferedLine = $null           # and forget the value
             }
         }
         elseif ($_.length -eq 0){
             $_
         }
     }
 if ($BufferedLine) {
     $BufferedLine                           # return the last line of necessary
 }

· 5

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Attachments: Up to 10 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 3.0 MiB each and 30.0 MiB total.

AJ-AJ · Dec 01, 2021 at 10:42 PM

Thank you for your help. I'm afraid that the above skipped the line and few other line all together.

Input.txt

abcd
cdef
["abcd"]
["ab
cd"]

["efgh"]
xyz

Output per above code (missed out few lines)

abcd
cdef
["ab
xyz

Expected Output.txt

abcd
cdef
["abcd"]
["abcd"]

["efgh"]
xyz

Greatly appreciated

0 ·

RichMatheisen-8856 AJ-AJ · Dec 02, 2021 at 02:26 AM

Having a file attached to your original post, rather than a copy/paste, to work with would have been helpful -- or a copy/paste using the "Code Sample" editor -- would have been helpful.

It wasn't obvious that there were empty lines in your dataset.

I added another conditional statement to the code I posted earlier. The data you posted now returns this:

 abcd
 cdef    
 ["abcd"]
 ["abcd"]
    
 ["efgh"]
 xyz

0 ·

AJ-AJ RichMatheisen-8856 · Dec 02, 2021 at 02:55 PM

Rich.. you are the man.. appreciate your help. I agree. I should have attached the input file. My bad. cant thank you enough for the above help.

At this point i would like to mark yours as answered but not sure if thread will be frozen.

If I may bother you with a scenario which I found just now. I have attached a revised input file 154523-input.txt which has few other special characters and lines which should not be disturbed. How to look only for the pattern [" and "] for concating rows. No changes on the rest of the lines and written to output file as is. 154533-expectedoutput.txt

I'm still playing around with the match criteria from the above.

0 ·

input.txt (76 B)

expectedoutput.txt (74 B)

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Answer 2 · 2021-12-02T16:57:55.977Z

AJ-AJ answered Dec 2, '21 AJ-AJ edited Dec 2, '21

This below gives the same result expected.

$file = Get-Content -Path "c:\junk\test.txt" -Raw
$file = $file -ireplace '(?<match1>[[^]])\r\n(?<match2>[^]]])','${match1}${match2}'
$file | Out-File -FilePath "C:\Junk\Results.txt"

· 1

5 |1600 characters needed characters left characters exceeded

Attachments: Up to 10 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 3.0 MiB each and 30.0 MiB total.

AJ-AJ · Dec 02, 2021 at 05:09 PM

To search for [" (start square bracket with quotes) anywhere in a line which does not contain close square bracket with quotes "]

$file = $file -ireplace '(?<match1>[\"[^]])\r\n(?<match2>[^]]\"])','${match1}${match2}'

0 ·

Answer 3 · 2021-12-02T17:09:27.527Z

AJ-AJ answered Dec 2, '21

To search for [" (start square bracket with quotes) anywhere in a line which does not contain close square bracket with quotes "]

$file = $file -ireplace '(?<match1>[\"[^]])\r\n(?<match2>[^]]\"])','${match1}${match2}'

5 |1600 characters needed characters left characters exceeded

Attachments: Up to 10 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 3.0 MiB each and 30.0 MiB total.

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