Microsoft.PowerShell.TextUtility module updates – PowerShell Staff

We’ve lately launched one other preview of the TextUtility module. This module is a set of instruments that
are supposed to assist with working with textual content content material.

Putting in the module

You possibly can set up this module from the PowerShellGallery with PowerShellGet through:

Set up-Module -Title Microsoft.PowerShell.TextUtility -AllowPrerelease

Or you may set up it with PSResourceGet through:

Set up-PSResource -Title Microsoft.PowerShell.TextUtility -Prerelease

ConvertFrom-TextTable

The latest pre-release of Microsoft.PowerShell.TextUtility
has some new thrilling performance.
The brand new ConvertFrom-TextTable cmdlet means that you can take tabular textual content
and convert it into objects.
Additionally, there’s a technique to convert a few of varieties of these objects into one thing aside from a string.
Utilizing the -ConvertPropertyValue parameter will change the worth of the property to a strongly typed worth.
This implies you are able to do the next:

PS> df | choose -first 6 | convertfrom-texttable -ConvertPropertyValue |Ft                       

Filesystem     512-blocks     Used  Accessible Capability  iused      ifree %iused Mounted_on
----------     ----------     ----  --------- --------  -----      ----- ------ ----------
/dev/disk4s1s1 3907805752 17699080 1242895000 2%       355382 4291123926 0%     /
devfs                 462      462          0 100%        800          0 100%   /dev
/dev/disk4s3   3907805752  3676600 1242895000 1%         3745 6214475000 0%     /System/Volumes/Preboot
/dev/disk4s5   3907805752  4194376 1242895000 1%            2 6214475000 0%     /System/Volumes/VM
/dev/disk4s6   3907805752    19992 1242895000 1%           19 6214475000 0%     /System/Volumes/Replace

PS> df | choose -first 6 | convertfrom-texttable -ConvertPropertyValue |?{$_.accessible -lt 10}|Ft

Filesystem 512-blocks Used Accessible Capability iused ifree %iused Mounted_on
---------- ---------- ---- --------- -------- ----- ----- ------ ----------
devfs             462  462         0 100%       800     0 100%   /dev

ConvertFrom-TextTable additionally means that you can specify the place the header line is outlined, or skip strains till you get to the place the info begins.
Moreover, it’s doable to take the textual content output and explicitly create properties by defining the place a column begins.

PS> $string = $("a".."z";"A".."Z";0..9) -join ""                                                      
PS> 1..10 | %{$string}|convertfrom-texttable -noheader -columnoffset 0,15,23,40,55 | ft

Property_01     Property_02 Property_03       Property_04     Property_05
-----------     ----------- -----------       -----------     -----------
abcdefghijklmno pqrstuvw    xyzABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ012 3456789
abcdefghijklmno pqrstuvw    xyzABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ012 3456789
abcdefghijklmno pqrstuvw    xyzABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ012 3456789
abcdefghijklmno pqrstuvw    xyzABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ012 3456789
abcdefghijklmno pqrstuvw    xyzABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ012 3456789
abcdefghijklmno pqrstuvw    xyzABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ012 3456789
abcdefghijklmno pqrstuvw    xyzABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ012 3456789
abcdefghijklmno pqrstuvw    xyzABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ012 3456789
abcdefghijklmno pqrstuvw    xyzABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ012 3456789
abcdefghijklmno pqrstuvw    xyzABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ012 3456789

Lastly, you too can emit the info as JSON with the -AsJson parameter:

PS> who -p | %{$_.trim()} | convertfrom-texttable -noheader -AsJson  
{ "Property_01": "james", "Property_02": "console", "Property_03": "Jun", "Property_04": "22", "Property_05": "08:34" }
{ "Property_01": "james", "Property_02": "ttys016", "Property_03": "Jun", "Property_04": "22", "Property_05": "10:00" }
{ "Property_01": "james", "Property_02": "ttys017", "Property_03": "Jun", "Property_04": "22", "Property_05": "14:42" }
{ "Property_01": "james", "Property_02": "ttys004", "Property_03": "Jun", "Property_04": "22", "Property_05": "22:08" }
{ "Property_01": "james", "Property_02": "ttys025", "Property_03": "Jun", "Property_04": "23", "Property_05": "00:38" }

Subsequent Steps

That is nonetheless in pre-release and we all know that there’s nonetheless work to be performed.
For instance, the parser will create an object out of the header/knowledge separator.
This can be a little trickier than at first it could appear.
The textual content is inspected and columns width is set based mostly on the inspected textual content.
These header/knowledge separator strains assist the parser perceive the place the columns are separated.
This implies we are able to’t simply toss them out because the textual content is being learn.
I’m certain you’ll discover extra issues that we are able to do,
and we’d like to get your suggestions on this new cmdlet so please give this module a attempt.
Please submit your suggestions to the repo instantly through the problems tab, right here.

Thanks a lot!

Jim Truher

PowerShell Staff