!!! powershell script to add a word in the beginning of the text file - URGENT !!!

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2011-11-09

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_{Wednesday, November 9, 2011 10:14 PM}

I need a power shell script to find all the text files in a particular folder and taking each text file, the script should add "99" to the beginning of each text file and save them with another name in the same folder.

Example: File1.txt, File2.txt is in a folder. If I run the script over this folder, this should do the following:

1)Go to File1.txt, open it and add "99" to the beginning of the first line and save it like File1_99.txt in the same folder

2)Go to File2.txt and do the same thing

End;

File1.txt when opened looks like (before): "accounts" "management" .... and so on

File1_99.txt when opened should look like (after): "99" "accounts" "management" .... and so on

Thanks for any help you do!

All replies (12)

_{Wednesday, November 9, 2011 10:38 PM}

Here you go. This will create a copy of each text file in a folder, rename it with _99 and then pre-pend the first line of the file with 99.

$folder = "C:\somefolder"

Get-ChildItem $folder -filter '*.txt' | %{
    $info = "99 "
    $info += Get-Content $_.FullName
    $file = $_.FullName.Replace('.txt','_99.txt')
    $info | out-file $file
    }

Rich Prescott | Infrastructure Architect, Windows Engineer and PowerShell blogger | MCITP, MCTS, MCP

Engineering Efficiency
@Rich_Prescott
Client System Administration tool
AD User Creation tool

_{Wednesday, November 9, 2011 10:43 PM}

dir *.txt |%{ '99',(gc $_) | out-file ($_.Name -replace '\txt$','_99.txt') }

Thanks,
-Lincoln

_{Wednesday, November 9, 2011 10:55 PM}

I did run this and I see an error.

-> Prompt is not implemented.

And fyi.. I am running this psl using a JAMS scheduler.

And do I need to set the "$info" like an environmental variable?

_{Wednesday, November 9, 2011 11:33 PM}

I did run this and I see an error.

-> Prompt is not implemented.

And fyi.. I am running this psl using a JAMS scheduler.

And do I need to set the "$info" like an environmental variable?

Try running it stand-alone as a .ps1 script. If that works, that is as far as I can take you as I am not familiar with JAMS.Rich Prescott | Infrastructure Architect, Windows Engineer and PowerShell blogger | MCITP, MCTS, MCP

Engineering Efficiency
@Rich_Prescott
Client System Administration tool
AD User Creation tool

_{Wednesday, November 9, 2011 11:56 PM}

(stealing from Lincoln)
dir *.txt |%{
$lines = gc $_
$lines[0] = '99' + $lines[0]
$lines | out-file ($_.Name -replace '\.txt$','_99.txt')
  } 
[string](0..33|%{[char][int](46+("686552495351636652556262185355647068516270555358646562655775 0645570").substring(($_*2),2))})-replace " "

Come on, this will fail if the text file has no content ( in which case, $lines will be null) and also when the file has only one line ( in which case $line will be a string rather than an array and you cannot index into it. )

Also, out-file ($_.name) means it will write to the file in currentdirectory. You have to use FullName like Prescott did.

Only suggestion I would add over Prescot's answer is to use `-raw` flag with get-content so that the 99 gets added to first line rather than as first line. I think that is what you wanted to do with the $lines[0] = '99' + $lines[0] line.

_{Wednesday, November 9, 2011 11:58 PM}

Yes, I got it. But what if I need to add "99" to the text file? I mean 99 with quotes?

I have done the code like this:

$folder = "C:\somefolder"

Get-ChildItem $folder -filter '*.txt' | %{
    $info = ""99""
    $info += Get-Content $_.FullName
    $file = $_.FullName.Replace('.txt','_99.txt')
    $info | out-file $file
    }

I see an error:

Unexpected token

Unexpected token '99" "' in expression or statement.

_{Thursday, November 10, 2011 12:02 AM}

Yes, I got it. But what if I need to add "99" to the text file? I mean 99 with quotes?

I have done the code like this:

$folder = "C:\somefolder"

Get-ChildItem $folder -filter '*.txt' | %{
    $info = ""99""
    $info += Get-Content $_.FullName
    $file = $_.FullName.Replace('.txt','_99.txt')
    $info | out-file $file
    }

I see an error:

Unexpected token

Unexpected token '99" "' in expression or statement.

 $info = "`"99`""

_{Thursday, November 10, 2011 12:21 AM}

Thanks much Manoj! it worked. But another issue:

If the source file contains special characters like small boxes (unable to put 'em in here), the output file doesnt have those :( (I mean when opened in notepad) But these are actually export files from a database in which only the first word should be added and loaded back into the database. I am worried if the database rejects these output files because of no small boxes like in the source file.

Any suggestions on preserving those too?

_{Thursday, November 10, 2011 12:25 AM}

Above will add a line to the start of the files with the content 99

If your goal is to append "99" to the start of the existing first line, then use below:

dir *.txt |%{
**                   $content = '"99"' + [io.file]::ReadAllText($_.FullName)**
**                   [io.file]::WriteAllText( ($_.FullName -replace '\txt$','_99.txt'), $content)**
**               }**

Thanks,
-Lincoln

_{Thursday, November 10, 2011 12:33 AM}

OK. You win.[string](0..33|%{[char][int](46+("686552495351636652556262185355647068516270555358646562655775 0645570").substring(($_*2),2))})-replace " "

_{Thursday, November 10, 2011 1:18 AM}

Great!! worked :)

_{Monday, November 14, 2011 6:46 PM}

Above will add a line to the start of the files with the content 99

If your goal is to append "99" to the start of the existing first line, then use below:

dir *.txt |%{
**                   $content = '"99"' + [io.file]::ReadAllText($_.FullName)**
**                   [io.file]::WriteAllText( ($_.FullName -replace '\txt$','_99.txt'), $content)**
**               }**

Thanks,
-Lincoln

I got an error while running the script you've given me:

Exception calling "ReadAllText" with "1" argument(s): Exception of type 'System.OutofMemoryException' was thrown."
At D:\apps\MVPSI\JAMS\Agent... char:51

+ $content ='"Segment99" '+[io.file]::ReadAllText<<<<($_.FullName)

+categoryInfo:NotSpecified:(:) [], MethodInvocationException

+FullyQualifiedErrorId:DotNetMethodException

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!!! powershell script to add a word in the beginning of the text file - URGENT !!!

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