How to check if a property is null/empty in a CSV

PowerShell Help
1

Hi,

 

I have a CSV with several properties like PersonalArea;Employeenumber;…

I want to count the lines in this CSV but only these where the property “Employeenumber” is not null and the PersonalArea is equal to “myLocation”.

Currently, I got the following code:

 

$filepath = "C:path\to\csv"
$CSV = Import-Csv -Path $filepath -Delimiter ";" -Encoding UTF8 | Measure-Object
$a = $CSV | Where-Object {$_.PersonalArea -eq "myLocation -and $_.Employeenumber -ne $null}
#count lines where the expression is true
$a.count
#count all lines except op the first one
$CSV.count

Here is an CSV example:

PersonalArea;Employeenumber

myLocation;123456

myLocation;234567

otherLocation;345678

otherLocation;

 

Currently, I get the following output:

$a.count –> 0

$CSV.count –> 4

 

Can someone tell me why I getting a wrong output on $a.count?

I appreciate your help.

2

If I got it right you should check for an empty string instead of $null because Import-Csv only returns strings not objects.

3

I already tested it out with an empty string…same result

$a = $CSV | Where-Object {$_.PersonalArea -eq "myLocation -and $_.Employeenumber -ne ""}

OR

$a = $CSV | Where-Object {$_.PersonalArea -eq "myLocation -and $_.Employeenumber -ne ''}
4

And why not just 

$CSV | Where-Object {$.PersonalArea -eq "myLocation -and $.Employeenumber}

5

I didn’t know this works. But it doesn’t work either.

6

It does work for me with my sample data. :wink: Could you please post a few sanitized but still representative rows of your CSV file? Please format it as code.

7

I’m using the same CSV data for testing as I mentioned above. Can you post your code?

PersonalArea;Employeenumber
myLocation;123456
myLocation;234567
otherLocation;345678
otherLocation;
8 
$CSVData = @'
PersonalArea;Employeenumber
myLocation;123456
myLocation;234567
otherLocation;345678
otherLocation;
'@ | ConvertFrom-Csv -Delimiter ';'

($CSVData | Where-Object {$_.Employeenumber}).count

$CSVData.Count

That’s the actual code I’m using to check if it works.
The output is this:

PS C:\> $CSVData = @'
PersonalArea;Employeenumber
myLocation;123456
myLocation;234567
otherLocation;345678
otherLocation;
'@ | ConvertFrom-Csv -Delimiter ';'

($CSVData | Where-Object {$_.Employeenumber}).count

$CSVData.Count
3
4
PS C:\>
9

Now it works. First I have added the brackets + .count

($CSVData | Where-Object {$_.Employeenumber}).count

Then I removed these changes and tested it again with my code…

$filepath = "C:\path\to\csv"
$CSV = Import-Csv -Path $filepath -Delimiter ";" -Encoding UTF8
$a =$CSV | Where-Object {$_.PersonalArea -eq "myLocation" -and $_.Employeenumber}
$a.count
#count lines where the expression is true
#$a.count
#count all lines except op the first one
$CSV.count

The output is correct in both test cases.

Thank you. Could you explain why you are using $.Employeenumber instead of $.Employeenumber -ne ’ ’ ? Is it just shorter or is there another reason?

I think the problem was the piping of Measure-Object

$CSV = Import-Csv -Path $filepath -Delimiter ";" -Encoding UTF8 | Measure-Object
10

Ooops … I missed that completely until you just mentioned it now. Sorry. :wink:

Mostly I’m really bad with explaining of what’s going on under the hood. Personally I like to write the code as short as possible but still as descriptive and detailed as possible without using aliasses or abbreviations.

BTW: Sometimes it’s easier to ask a quesiotn in your native language. There are German Powershell-related forums as well like MCSEBoard.de or the German Microsoft Technet Powershell forum.

Tschüß :wink:

11

Danke für den Tipp :slight_smile: Vielen Dank für die Hilfe.

Tschüss.