Read a Csv file with powershell and capture corresponding data

Question

Using PowerShell I would like to capture user input, compare the input to data in a comma delimited CSV file and write corresponding data to a variable.

Example:

Answer 1

What you should be looking at is Import-Csv

Once you import the CSV you can use the column header as the variable.

Example CSV:

Name  | Phone Number | Email
Elvis | 867.5309     | Elvis@Geocities.com
Sammy | 555.1234     | SamSosa@Hotmail.com

Now we will import the CSV, and loop through the list to add to an array. We can then compare the value input to the array:

$Name = @()
$Phone = @()

Import-Csv H:\Programs\scripts\SomeText.csv |`
    ForEach-Object {
        $Name += $_.Name
        $Phone += $_."Phone Number"
    }

$inputNumber = Read-Host -Prompt "Phone Number"

if ($Phone -contains $inputNumber)
    {
    Write-Host "Customer Exists!"
    $Where = [array]::IndexOf($Phone, $inputNumber)
    Write-Host "Customer Name: " $Name[$Where]
    }

And here is the output:

Answer 2

So I figured out what is wrong with this statement:

Import-Csv H:\Programs\scripts\SomeText.csv |`

(Original)

Import-Csv H:\Programs\scripts\SomeText.csv -Delimiter "|"

(Proposed, You must use quotations; otherwise, it will not work and ISE will give you an error)

It requires the -Delimiter "|", in order for the variable to be populated with an array of items. Otherwise, Powershell ISE does not display the list of items.

I cannot say that I would recommend the | operator, since it is used to pipe cmdlets into one another.

I still cannot get the if statement to return true and output the values entered via the prompt.

If anyone else can help, it would be great. I still appreciate the post, it has been very helpful!

Answer 3

Old topic, but never clearly answered. I've been working on similar as well, and found the solution:

The pipe (|) in this code sample from Austin isn't the delimiter, but to pipe the ForEach-Object, so if you want to use it as delimiter, you need to do this:

Import-Csv H:\Programs\scripts\SomeText.csv -delimiter "|" |`
ForEach-Object {
    $Name += $_.Name
    $Phone += $_."Phone Number"
}

Spent a good 15 minutes on this myself before I understood what was going on. Hope the answer helps the next person reading this avoid the wasted minutes! (Sorry for expanding on your comment Austin)