Working with Basic .NET DataSets and DataTables in PowerShell

This is mostly for my reference, but you can use it, too :)

Create Basic Datatable

$dt = New-Object System.Data.Datatable
[void]$dt.Columns.Add("First")
[void]$dt.Columns.Add("Second")
[void]$dt.Columns.Add("Third")

# Add a row manually
[void]$dt.Rows.Add("1","2","3")

# Or add an array
$me = "computername","userdomain","username"
$array = (Get-Childitem env: | Where-Object { $me -contains $_.Name }).Value
[void]$dt.Rows.Add($array)

Create Basic DataSet (Collection of Tables)

# Continuing from above
$dt.TableName = "Me"
$ds = New-Object System.Data.DataSet
$ds.Tables.Add($dt)

$dt2 = New-Object System.Data.Datatable "AnotherTable"
[void]$dt2.Columns.Add("MyColumn")
[void]$dt2.Rows.Add("MyRow")
$ds.Tables.Add($dt2)

$ds.tables["Me"]
$ds.tables["AnotherTable"]

Selecting

$dt = New-Object System.Data.Datatable
[void]$dt.Columns.Add("Artist")
[void]$dt.Columns.Add("Genre")
[void]$dt.Columns.Add("Album")
[void]$dt.Columns.Add("ReleaseYear")

# Change ReleaseYear to an int, if you want.
$dt.Columns["ReleaseYear"].DataType = [int]

# Add an array
$array = "Tim Smooth","Southern Rap","I Gotsta' Have It",1991
[void]$dt.Rows.Add($array)

# Or add rows manually
[void]$dt.Rows.Add("Poison","Glam Metal","Open Up and Say... Ahh!",1988)
[void]$dt.Rows.Add("Cinderella","Night Songs","Flesh & Blood",1986)
[void]$dt.Rows.Add("Eazy-E","Gangsta Rap","Eazy-Duz-It",1988)

# Uses SQL syntax
$dt.Select("Genre like '%Rap'")
$dt.Select("ReleaseYear > 1988")
$dt.Select("Artist = 'Poison'")

# Change Eazy-E's genre
$eazy = ($dt.Select("Artist = 'Eazy-E'"))
$eazy[0]["Genre"] = "West Coast Rap"

# Find this new genre
$dt.Select("Genre like '%Coast%'")

Create Datatable from CSV

Using this method, you can add 140k rows a second.

# CSV variables
$csvfile = "C:\perf\100krow.tsv"
$csvdelimiter = "`t"
$firstRowColumns = $false

# Do it
$dt = New-Object System.Data.Datatable
$reader = New-Object System.IO.StreamReader $csvfile
$columns = (Get-Content $csvfile -First 1).Split($csvdelimiter)

foreach ($column in $columns) {
	if ($firstRowColumns -eq $true) { 
		[void]$dt.Columns.Add($column)
		$reader.ReadLine()
	} else { [void]$dt.Columns.Add() }
}

# Read in the data, line by line
while (($line = $reader.ReadLine()) -ne $null)  {
	[void]$dt.Rows.Add($line.Split($csvdelimiter))
} 

$dt.rows.count

Managing Duplicates

$columns = "Second","Third"

$distinct = New-Object "System.Data.DataTable" 
$onlydupes = New-Object "System.Data.DataTable" 
$hash = new-object "System.Collections.Generic.HashSet[string]"

foreach ($column in $dt.Columns) {
	[void]$distinct.Columns.Add($column.ToString())
	[void]$onlydupes.Columns.Add($column.ToString())
}

foreach ($row in $dt.rows) {
	$columnsToCheck = [string]($row | Select-Object $columns)
	$result = $hash.Add($columnsToCheck)

	if ($result -eq $false) { 
		[void]$distinct.Rows.Add($row.ItemArray) 
	} else {
		# This works about as fast as $all.DefaultView.ToTable($true,"Column2","Column3")
		[void]$onlydupes.Rows.Add($row.ItemArray) }
}

$dt.rows.count
$distinct.rows.count
$onlydupes.rows.count

Create new table using another datatable’s schema

$dupetable = $dt.Clone()
foreach ($row in $select) { $dupetable.ImportRow($row) }
#or
$dupetable = $dt.Copy()

Filling DataTables and DataSets with data from SQL Server

# Set variables
$sqlserver = "sqlserver"
$database = "master"
$connstring = "Server=$sqlserver;Database=$database;Integrated Security=True"
$query = "select SERVERPROPERTY('InstanceDefaultDataPath') as data, SERVERPROPERTY('InstanceDefaultLogPath') as log"
 
 
# You can use SQL Connection/ SQL Command
$sqlconn = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection
$sqlconn.ConnectionString = $connstring
$sqlconn.Open()

$sqlcmd = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand
$sqlcmd.Connection = $sqlconn
$sqlcmd.CommandText = $query

# load it right into a DataTable
$dt = New-Object System.Data.DataTable
$dt.Load($sqlcmd.ExecuteReader())
$dt.data
$dt.log

# Or alternatively, load a table into a DataSet
$sqladapter = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataAdapter
$sqladapter.SelectCommand = $sqlcmd
$ds = New-Object System.Data.DataSet
[void]$sqladapter.Fill($ds)

# Close connection
$sqlconn.Close()
 
$defaultdata = $ds.Tables[0].rows[0].data
$defaultlog = $ds.Tables[0].rows[0].log
 
# Or you can use SMO
[void][Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SqlServer.SMO") 
$server = New-Object Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Server "sqlserver"
$ds = $server.ConnectionContext.ExecuteWithResults($query)
$ds.Tables[0]
 
$defaultdata = $ds.Tables[0].rows[0].data
$defaultlog = $ds.Tables[0].rows[0].log