How to sort a text file in PowerShell

Question

I am checking my servers Disk Space Usage and generate a text file as a report. I want to sort the output file in an ascending order of FreePercentage Free%.

I am stuck at this stage. It just does not sort. Is it a delimiter issue? Where is my mistake?

# files to be used
$FileName0 = "C:\MONITORING\WINDOWS-SPACE\SCRIPT\SPACE0.txt"
$FileName1 = "C:\MONITORING\WINDOWS-SPACE\SCRIPT\SPACE1.txt"
$FileName2 = "C:\MONITORING\WINDOWS-SPACE\SCRIPT\SPACE2.txt"

# file containing servers list
#$ServerName = Get-Content "C:\MONITORING\WINDOWS-SPACE\SCRIPT\COMPUTERS.txt"

# use 2 servers only for coding test, will be replaced by a file containing all
# servers
$ServerName = "SERVER1","SERVER2"

# loop and process drive-id and calculations and populate filename-0
foreach ($_ in $ServerName) {
  Get-WmiObject -Query "Select * from win32_logicaldisk"  -ComputerName $_ |
    Select PSComputername, DeviceID,
      @{Name="TotalGB"; Expression={"{0:N0}" -F ($_.Size/1GB)}}, 
      @{Name="UsedGB" ; Expression={"{0:N0}" -F (($_.Size/1GB)-($_.Freespace/1GB))}},
      @{Name="FreeGB" ; Expression={"{0:N0}" -F ($_.Freespace/1GB)}}, 
      @{Name="Free%"  ; Expression={"{0:N0}" -F (($_.Freespace/$_.Size)*100)}} |
    Format-Table -AutoSize >> $FileName0
}

# remove unwanted drives ('A'&'Z') and duplicate lines and empty lines and
# populate filename-1
Get-Content $FileName0 | Select-Object -Unique |
  Where {$_ -notmatch "A:"} |
  Where {$_ -notmatch "Z:"} |
  Where { $_ -notmatch "^-" } |
  Where {$_ -ne ""} |
  Format-Table -AutoSize > $FileName1   

# input final result into a CSV file filename-2
Import-Csv $FileName1 -Header PSComputername, TotalGB, UsedGB, FreeGB, Free%  |
  sort [int]Free% |
  Format-Table -AutoSize >> $FileName2

Actual output file:

PSComputerName DeviceID TotalGB UsedGB FreeGB Free%
SERVER1        C:       60      33     27     45
SERVER1        D:       20      2      18     88
SERVER2        C:       40      27     13     33
SERVER2        D:       50      6      44     87

Desired output file:

PSComputerName DeviceID TotalGB UsedGB FreeGB Free%
SERVER2        C:       40      27     13     33
SERVER1        C:       60      33     27     45
SERVER2        D:       50      6      44     87
SERVER1        D:       20      2      18     88

Ansgar Wiechers · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-18 22:05:49Z

Get-WmiObject accepts a list of computernames, so you don't need a loop. Your main issue, though, is that you pipe your WMI result through Format-Table, write it to a file, and then try to read it again with Import-Csv when the format of your intermediate file isn't CSV at all. Sort the data right after Get-WmiObject before writing it to a file.

Get-WmiObject -Query 'SELECT * FROM Win32_LogicalDisk' -ComputerName $ServerName |
  Select PSComputername, DeviceID,
    @{Name="TotalGB"; Expression={"{0:N0}" -f ($_.Size/1GB)}}, 
    @{Name="UsedGB" ; Expression={"{0:N0}" -f (($_.Size/1GB)-($_.Freespace/1GB))}},
    @{Name="FreeGB" ; Expression={"{0:N0}" -f ($_.Freespace/1GB)}}, 
    @{Name="Free%"  ; Expression={"{0:N0}" -f (($_.Freespace/$_.Size)*100)}} |
  Sort-Object {[int]$_.'Free%'} |
  Format-Table -AutoSize |
  Set-Content $FileName2

Use Export-Csv instead of Format-Table | Set-Content if you want actual CSV output:

... | Sort-Object [int]$_.Free% | Export-Csv $FileName2 -NoType

Bill_Stewart · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-18 22:11:11Z

1

Here's a shorter way to do what you are asking:

$computerList = "server1","server2"
$computerList | ForEach-Object {
  $computerName = $_
  $params = @{
    "Class" = "Win32_LogicalDisk"
    "ComputerName" = $computerName
    "Filter" = "DriveType=3"
  }
  Get-WmiObject @params | Select-Object `
    @{Name = "ComputerName"; Expression = {$_.__SERVER}},
    @{Name = "Drive";        Expression = {$_.DeviceID}},
    @{Name = "TotalGB";      Expression = {[Int] ("{0:N0}" -f ($_.Size / 1gb)                         )}},
    @{Name = "UsedGB";       Expression = {[Int] ("{0:N0}" -f (($_.Size / 1gb) - ($_.FreeSpace / 1gb)))}},
    @{Name = "FreeGB";       Expression = {[Int] ("{0:N0}" -f ($_.FreeSpace / 1gb)                    )}},
    @{Name = "FreePercent";  Expression = {[Int] ("{0:N0}" -f (($_.FreeSpace / $_.Size) * 100)        )}}
} | Sort-Object FreePercent

The problem you have is trying to use formatting and sorting before you're done creating output. Make sure you output everything before you try to format or sort.

edited Nov 18, 2016 at 22:11

answered Nov 18, 2016 at 21:56

Bill_Stewart

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3 Comments

Ansgar Wiechers Over a year ago

FreePercent are string values, so you need Sort-Object {[int]$_.FreePercent} to get the results in the correct order.

Bill_Stewart Over a year ago

Correct, I noticed that after I posted and updated to cast all of the values to [Int].

Ansgar Wiechers Over a year ago

*cough* [int]($_.Size / 1gb) *cough*

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