Powershell to Delete files based on CSV

Question

I am trying to delete bunch of files based on a csv file. Files listed in the csv file should be deleted from the target file share. When I run the script I am in the target folder but I am getting the following error:

Remove-Item : The input object cannot be bound to any parameters for the command either because the command does not take pipeline input or the input and its properties 
do not match any of the parameters that take pipeline input.
At line:9 char:56
+     Get-Childitem | where {$_.Name -match $filename} | Remove-Item -verbose -$fi ...
+                                                        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidArgument: (gp.html:PSObject) [Remove-Item], ParameterBindingException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InputObjectNotBound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RemoveItemCommand

Code below:

$csvFile = Import-csv "C:\\DeleteFiles.csv"
foreach($user in $csvFile)
{
    $filename = $user.FileName
    write-host $filename    
    Get-Childitem | where {$_.Name -match $filename} | Remove-Item -verbose -$fileName
}

Swoogan · Accepted Answer · 2014-11-12 19:59:00Z

2

According to your comment, you have some empty filenames in the csv file. This solution should be more robust:

$csvFile = Import-csv "C:\\DeleteFiles.csv"
foreach($user in $csvFile)
{
  $filename = $user.FileName
  write-host "The filename is '$filename'" 
  if (test-path $filename) 
  {
    Remove-Item -verbose $fileName
  }
  else
  {
    Write-Host "File '$filename' not found"
  }
}

edited Nov 12, 2014 at 19:59

answered Nov 12, 2014 at 19:38

Swoogan

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3 Comments

Green Code Over a year ago

Your code deleted all of my files. Luckily I was doing a test again c:\temp folder not the actual folder. So I changed the code to Remove-Item -verbose $filename but getting following error. Remove-Item : Cannot bind argument to parameter 'Path' because it is an empty string.

Green Code Over a year ago

I am sorry Swoogan, I did not mean to critic is negatively. Your solution worked like charm. and you are correct there are some empty row in the csv files. I need to make sure there are not empty rows. Thanks again

Swoogan Over a year ago

No offence taken. I'm just glad you were working in isolation. But this is a good lesson; PowerShell cmdlets often take an empty string to mean everything. I've been burned by this before, as well.

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