Processing text file and write it content to HTML output

Question

Hi all I have written the following code to export the text file content to HTML formatted output, but I am not getting the result as expected can some one help me

function TextToHtml {
    $SourceFile = "C:\sample.txt"
    $TargetFile = "C:\TestOutput.htm"

    $TextData = Get-Content $SourceFile

    foreach ($Line in $TextData) {
        $LineData = $FileLine + $Line
    }

    $LineData | ConvertTo-HTML | Out-File $TargetFile
}

What output do you expect? What is the content of sample.txt? — Martin Brandl
– Martin Brandl, Commented Jul 19, 2016 at 9:10

Mathias R. Jessen · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-19 09:29:48Z

2

ConvertTo-Html turns object properties into values in a list or table. A string only has one property, Length - that's what you see the value of in your output.

Create a new object with $LineData as a property value and you'll get meaningful output

function TextToHtml
{
    $SourceFile = "C:\sample.txt"
    $TargetFile = "C:\TestOutput.htm"

    $TextData = Get-Content $SourceFile

    Foreach ($Line in $TextData) {
      $LineData = $LineData + $Line
    }
    New-Object psobject -Property @{Text = $LineData} | ConvertTo-HTML -Property Text | Out-File $TargetFile

}

To make your function more reusable, turn the source and target file paths into parameters.

You also don't need to iterate over each string in $TextData to append them to each other, just use the -join operator:

function TextToHtml
{
    param(
        [string]$SourceFile = "C:\sample.txt",
        [string]$TargetFile = "C:\TestOutput.htm"
    )

    $TextData = Get-Content $SourceFile

    $LineData = $TextData -join ''

    New-Object psobject -Property @{Text = $LineData} | ConvertTo-HTML | Out-File $TargetFile

}

If you want to avoid the * header for objects that only have one property, use the -Property parameter with ConvertTo-Html to explicitly select the Text property:

ConvertTo-Html -Property Text

If you want to show each line in it's own table row, skip the concatenation and pipe the strings directly to ConvertTo-Html instead:

function TextToHtml
{
    param(
        [string]$SourceFile = "C:\sample.txt",
        [string]$TargetFile = "C:\TestOutput.htm"
    )

    Get-Content $SourceFile | ConvertTo-HTML -Property @{Label='Text';Expression={$_}} | Out-File $TargetFile

}

edited Jul 19, 2016 at 9:29

answered Jul 19, 2016 at 9:14

Mathias R. Jessen

178k13 gold badges175 silver badges234 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

3 Comments

Learner Over a year ago

Hi an astriek symbol is coming how can I over come that, also if I want to display each line tr td format is it possible

Mathias R. Jessen Over a year ago

@Learner Updated answer

Learner Over a year ago

Thanks Mathias R. Jessen

SavindraSingh · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-19 09:15:16Z

0

If we go just with the code pasted in the question above. It will give you the value of $FileLine (here it is null or blank) and text from last line in that file.

But if you want to have all lines as well use below code:

function TextToHtml
{
    $SourceFile = "C:\sample.txt"
    $TargetFile = "C:\TestOutput.htm"
    $TextData = Get-Content $SourceFile

    Foreach ($Line in $TextData) {
      $LineData = $FileLine + $LineData + $Line
    }
   $LineData | ConvertTo-HTML | Out-File $TargetFile

}

answered Jul 19, 2016 at 9:15

SavindraSingh

97118 silver badges42 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Processing text file and write it content to HTML output

2 Answers 2

3 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

3 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related