Break line in PowerShell to create CVS

Question

Is there any approach to break line in the same column in a CSV constructed by PowerShell? For example

Role     |Scope
--------------------
Role 01  |Scope 01
         |Scope 02
--------------------
Role 02  |Scope 01
         |Scope 03

I'm not sure if this is achievable. If not, what would be the supported format e.g. HTML?

[Updated] Below is my CSV object construct

class CsvObj {
   [Object] ${Role}
   [Object] ${Scope}
}

$roleList= Get-Role
$array = @()

ForEach ($role in $roleList) {
   $roleObj = [CsvObj]::new()
   $roleObj.Role = $role.Role
   $roleObj.Scope = $role.Scope
   $array += $roleObj
}
$array | Export-Csv -Path C:\file.csv

Each role may have more scopes and I'd like to group them properly.

Joey · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-25 19:01:21Z

3

In the interest of having data that's easy to process afterwards I'd suggest you instead prepare it like this:

Role     Scope
----     -----
Role 01  Scope 01
Role 01  Scope 02
Role 02  Scope 01
Role 02  Scope 03

That way you can always just group it by doing something like

Import-Csv foo.csv | group Role

whereas the alternative for the other version would be quite a bit more complicated.

You can insert line breaks in CSV cells just fine, but for this purpose I'd say they're not the best idea. If you need this for nice display purposes, then CSV is probably the wrong format and HTML may be a better option.

edited Sep 25, 2018 at 19:01

answered Sep 25, 2018 at 18:56

Joey

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Paweł Dyl · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-25 18:46:07Z

1

Just insert newline character (`n) between scopes:

[pscustomobject]@{Role='Role 01';Scope="Scope 01`nScope 02"},
[pscustomobject]@{Role='Role 02';Scope="Scope 01`nScope 03"} | ConvertTo-Csv

answered Sep 25, 2018 at 18:46

Paweł Dyl

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4 Comments

Maximilian Burszley Over a year ago

Note: escape characters do not work in string literals (single-quotes ''), only in expanded strings (double-quotes "").

EagleDev Over a year ago

I just updated the question with my sample. Thank you. The object is dynamically appended to the CSV so I'm unsure if using 'n solves the problem

Paweł Dyl Over a year ago

What is returned by Get-Role? (To simplify: what is the type of $roleArray?) Please run $roleArray | gm. It's declared as object.

EagleDev Over a year ago

@PawełDyl $roleList returns collection list.

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