How to pipe Access Data to CSV in PowerShell

The CData Cmdlets Module for Access is a standard PowerShell module offering straightforward integration with Access. Below, you will find examples of using our Access Cmdlets with native PowerShell cmdlets.

Creating a Connection to Your Access Data

To connect, set the DataSource property to the path to the Access database.

$conn = Connect-Access -DataSource "$DataSource"

Selecting Data

Follow the steps below to retrieve data from the Orders table and pipe the result into to a CSV file:

Select-Access -Connection $conn -Table Orders | Select -Property * -ExcludeProperty Connection,Table,Columns | Export-Csv -Path c:\myOrdersData.csv -NoTypeInformation

You will notice that we piped the results from Select-Access into a Select-Object cmdlet and excluded some properties before piping them into an Export-Csv cmdlet. We do this because the CData Cmdlets append Connection, Table, and Columns information onto each "row" in the result set, and we do not necessarily want that information in our CSV file.

The Connection, Table, and Columns are appended to the results in order to facilitate piping results from one of the CData Cmdlets directly into another one.

Deleting Data

The following line deletes any records that match the criteria:

Select-Access -Connection $conn -Table Orders -Where "ShipCity = New York" | Remove-Access

Inserting and Updating Data

The cmdlets make data transformation easy as well as data cleansing. The following example loads data from a CSV file into Access, checking first whether a record already exists and needs to be updated instead of inserted.

Import-Csv -Path C:\MyOrdersUpdates.csv | %{
 $record = Select-Access -Connection $Access -Table Orders -Where ("Id = `'"+$_.Id+"`'")
 if($record){
 Update-Access -Connection $access -Table Orders -Columns ("OrderName","Freight") -Values ($_.OrderName, $_.Freight) -Where ("Id = `'"+$_.Id+"`'")
 }else{
 Add-Access -Connection $access -Table Orders -Columns ("OrderName","Freight") -Values ($_.OrderName, $_.Freight)
 }
}

As always, our goal is to simplify the way you connect to data. With cmdlets users can install a data module, set the connection properties, and start building. Download Cmdlets and start working with your data in PowerShell today!