Powershell import-csv $variable properly is null

Question

I have a weird issues with Powershell Version 2.0.

The following works on newer versions but its not working as expected on this version. Any help is appreciated.

$DB = Import-Csv -Path "$($path)\DBExtrat.csv"

which is fine. Headers in DBExtrat.csv ('hostname','hostip','name','type') all 4 headers are reorganized and show up if i run

$DB

But if I try $DB.name or $DB.hostname it returns noting. I need to be able to call it like this because my whole logic is tied to those specific variables names.

I've already tried adding the -header option:

$DB = Import-Csv -Path "$($path)\DBExtrat.csv" -Header 'hostname','hostip','name','type'

but it doesn't work and also creates unnecessary extra row with header data.

Answer 1

With an expression such as $DB.name, you're trying to get the name property values of all elements of collection $DB, by performing the property access on the collection as a whole.

This feature is called member-access enumeration, and it is only available in PowerShell v3+.

The PowerShell v2 equivalent requires use of either Select-Object or ForEach-Object:

# Note the use of -ExpandProperty to ensure that only the property *value*
# is returned (without it, you get a *custom object* with a 'name' property).
$DB | Select-Object -ExpandProperty name

# Slower alternative, but can provide more flexibility
$DB | ForEach-Object { $_.name }