[RESOLVED] String with escaped carriage returns/line breaks displays literally

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1

NEVER MIND … I had double-escaped the characters for some super important reason which escapes me now, and a keen-eyed person in technet pointed it out. I can’t figure out how to delete this post, so please pretend it has self-destructed. :slight_smile:

Hi all -

I’m trying to figure out why I’m seeing the literal output of a string containing escaped characters when I don’t think I should be. (Long story short, I want to import a CSV file to create a slew of new AD groups, and the Notes field (-otherattributes @{info=“foo”} will need to include line breaks).

Much simplified version below.

I import a CSV file…

PS C:\> $CSVFile = "c:\temp\testimport.csv"
PS C:\> $ImportCSV = Import-CSV -Path $CSVFile

All goes well. Here’s what it looks like:

PS C:\> $ImportCSV

    GroupName Notes                                                         
    --------- -----                                                         
    Colors    Colors I hate: Red, Blue, Green; Colors I love: Orange, Yellow
    Animals   Mammals: Dogs, Cats, Marmosets; Birds: Canaries, Pigeons

I want to modify Notes to make it more readable:

PS C:\> Foreach ($Group in $ImportCSV) {
    
    # Carriage return/new line after heading with colon
    If ($Group.Notes -match ":") {
        $Group.Notes = $Group.Notes -replace(":",":``r``n")
    }
    
    # Carriage return/new line before semicolon (next line is another heading)
    If ($Group.Notes -match ";") {
        $Group.Notes = $Group.Notes -replace("; ","``r``n")
    }

    # Carriage return/new line after comma (new sub-item)
    If ($Group.Notes -match ",") {
        $Group.Notes = $Group.Notes -replace(",","``r``n")
    }
}

And the output now looks like this:

PS C:\> $ImportCSV

    GroupName Notes                                                                             
    --------- -----                                                                             
    Colors    Colors I hate:`r`n Red`r`n Blue`r`n Green`r`nColors I love:`r`n Orange`r`n Yellow
    Animals   Mammals:`r`n Dogs`r`n Cats`r`n Marmosets`r`n Birds:`r`n Canaries`r`n Pigeons

Hmm; the Notes property still displays as a literal string with the escaped characters:

PS C:\ ($ImportCSV | Select -first 1).Notes

    Colors I hate:`r`n Red`r`n Blue`r`n Green`r`n Colors I love:`r`n Orange`r`n Yellow

However, if I copy that value to the clipboard and paste to a new variable, it displays just as I want:

PS C:\> ($ImportCSV | Select -first 1).Notes | Clip
PS C:\> $Test = "Colors I hate:`r`n Red`r`n Blue`r`n Green`r`nColors I love:`r`n Orange`r`n Yellow"
PS C:\> $Test
    
    Colors I hate:
     Red
     Blue
     Green
    Colors I love:
     Orange
     Yellow

I don’t understand why the output is different. The types are the same.

PS C:\> ($ImportCSV | Select -first 1).Notes.GetType()

    IsPublic IsSerial Name    BaseType                                                                          
    -------- -------- ----    --------                                                                          
    True     True     String  System.Object                                                                                            
                              
PS C:\> $Test.GetType()   
                              
    IsPublic IsSerial Name    BaseType                                                                          
    -------- -------- ----    --------                                                                          
    True     True     String  System.Object

Halp?

Thanks :slight_smile: