CSV Output Unreadable

Question

I'm trying to export the results of this simple script to a.csv file. I get the results but it either returns information about data of the results or a long jumble of data I'm sure how to parse correctly.

<# 
Will ping all devices in list and display results as a simple UP or DOWN, color coded Red or Green.
#>


$Names = Get-Content -Path "C:\TestFolder\GetNames.txt"

$Output = @() 

foreach ($name in $names)
{

    if (Test-Connection -ComputerName $name -Count 1 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)
        {
            $Result1 += "$name, up" 
            Write-Host "$name, up" -ForegroundColor Green
           
        }

    else
        
        {
          $Result2 += "$name, down" 
          Write-Host "$name, down" -ForegroundColor Red

        }
    }

$Output += $Result1, $Result2
$Output = $Output | Select-Object 

$Output | Export-Csv -Path 'C:\psCSVFiles\mycsv.csv' -NoTypeInformation

Results of this return: Length 49768 25081

What am I doing wrong here? Thanks

Answer 1

Don't attempt to "format" the output strings manually - Export-Csv will take care of that part.

What you want to do is create objects with properties corresponding to the columns you want in your CSV:

$Names = Get-Content -Path "C:\TestFolder\GetNames.txt"

$Output = foreach ($name in $names) {
  # test if computer is reachable/pingable
  $isUp = Test-Connection -ComputerName $name -Count 1 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -Quiet

  # construct output object with results
  [pscustomobject]@{
    ComputerName = $name
    Status = if($isUp){ 'Up' }else{ 'Down' }
  }
}

# Export to CSV
$Output |Export-Csv -Path 'C:\psCSVFiles\mycsv.csv' -NoTypeInformation

Alternatively, use Select-Object to modify the input strings directly using the pipeline:

Get-Content -Path "C:\TestFolder\GetNames.txt" |Select @{Name='ComputerName';Expression={$_}},@{Name='Status';Expression={if(Test-Connection -ComputerName $_ -Count 1 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -Quiet){'Up'}else{'Down'}}} |Export-Csv -Path 'C:\psCSVFiles\mycsv.csv' -NoTypeInformation