Replace blank characters from a file line by line - csv

Question

I would like to be able to find all blanks from a CSV file and if a blank character is found on a line then should appear on the screen and I should be asked if I want to keep the entire line which contains that white space or remove it.
Let's say the directory is C:\Cr\Powershell\test. In there there is one CSV file abc.csv.
Tried doing it like this but in PowerShell ISE the $_.PSObject.Properties isn't recognized.
$csv = Import-Csv C:\Cr\Powershell\test\*.csv | Foreach-Object {
$_.PSObject.Properties | Foreach-Object {$_.Value = $_.Value.Trim()}
}
I apologize for not includding more code and what I tried more so far but they were silly attempts since I just begun.
This looks helpful but I don't know exactly how to adapt it for my problem.

Answer 1

Ok man here you go:
$yes = New-Object System.Management.Automation.Host.ChoiceDescription "&Yes", "Retain line."
$no = New-Object System.Management.Automation.Host.ChoiceDescription "&No", "Delete line."
$n = #()
$f = Get-Content .\test.csv
foreach($item in $f) {
if($item -like "* *"){
$res = $host.ui.PromptForChoice("Title", "want to keep this line? `n $item", [System.Management.Automation.Host.ChoiceDescription[]]($yes, $no), 0)
switch ($res)
{
0 {$n+=$item}
1 {}
}
} else {
$n+=$item
}
}
$n | Set-Content .\test.csv
if you have questions please post in the comments and i will explain

Answer 2

Get-Content is probably a better approach than Import-Csv, because that'll allow you to check an entire line for spaces instead of having to check each individual field. For fully automated processing you'd just use a Where-Object filter to remove non-matching lines from the output:
Get-Content 'C:\CrPowershell\test\input.csv' |
Where-Object { $_ -notlike '* *' } |
Set-Content 'C:\CrPowershell\test\output.csv'
However, since you want to prompt for each individual line that contains spaces you need a ForEach-Object (or a similiar construct) and a nested conditional, like this:
Get-Content 'C:\CrPowershell\test\input.csv' | ForEach-Object {
if ($_ -notlike '* *') { $_ }
} | Set-Content 'C:\CrPowershell\test\output.csv'
The simplest way to prompt a user for input is Read-Host:
$answer = Read-Host -Prompt 'Message'
if ($answer -eq 'y') {
# do one thing
} else {
# do another
}
In your particular case you'd probably do something like this for any matching line:
$anwser = Read-Host "$_`nKeep the line? [y/n] "
if ($answer -ne 'n') { $_ }
The above checks if the answer is not n to make removal of the line a conscious decision.
Other ways to prompt for user input are choice.exe (which has the additional advantage of allowing a timeout and a default answer):
choice.exe /c YN /d N /t 10 /m "$_`nKeep the line"
if ($LastExitCode -ne 2) { $_ }
or the host UI:
$title = $_
$message = 'Keep the line?'
$yes = New-Object Management.Automation.Host.ChoiceDescription '&Yes'
$no = New-Object Management.Automation.Host.ChoiceDescription '&No'
$options = [Management.Automation.Host.ChoiceDescription[]]($yes, $no)
$answer = $Host.UI.PromptForChoice($title, $message, $options, 1)
if ($answer -ne 1) { $_ }
I'm leaving it as an exercise for you to integrate whichever prompting routine you chose with the rest of the code.