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Learn how to modify your PowerShell script to read and process CSV file paths from a text file instead of a directory with a simple yet effective approach.
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Modify PowerShell Script to Use CSV File Paths from a Text File

When working with PowerShell scripts, a common task is to loop through a set of CSV files for reading and processing data. Traditionally, one might point the script to a directory where these CSV files reside. But what if you want to specify these file paths through a text file? This adjustment can offer more flexibility, especially when dealing with files from varying directories.

Here's a step-by-step guide to modifying your PowerShell script to read CSV file paths from a text file.

The Plain Approach

Prepare Your Text File

First, you'll need a text file containing all the paths of the CSV files you want to process. This can be simply created using any text editor like Notepad. Save it as files.txt. Each line in this file should represent the absolute path of a CSV file.

Example content of files.txt:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Modify Your PowerShell Script

Adjust your PowerShell script to read the text file and loop through the CSV file paths listed in it. Below is a basic illustrative script to guide you through this:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Explanation

Step 1: Define the path to your text file containing CSV file paths.

Step 2: Use Get-Content to read all file paths from the text file into an array.

Step 3: Loop through each file path, validate if the file exists using Test-Path, and then import the CSV file using Import-Csv.

Step 4: In the loop, you can process each row of the CSV file as needed. The try-catch block ensures that any issues during file import or processing are handled gracefully.

Benefits of This Approach

Flexibility: Easily manage and change the list of CSV files to process without altering the script.

Scalability: Handle files across multiple directories or even network paths.

Maintenance: Simplify updates to file lists, making it more transparent which files are being processed.

By following this approach, you can make your PowerShell scripts more dynamic and adaptable to different sets of files, free from the constraints of processing files only from a single directory.