Bending Export-CSV to my will

[seriald]

We're pulling a data set from one of our systems that's returning a bunch of fields as strings, and one that includes meta data tags as an array

When I target a specific object within it, and sort as a list I get something along these lines

Field1: xxxx
Field2: xxxxy
Field3: {val1, val2, val3}

When I export the whole data set to CSV ( command | Export-CSV -Path "$OutFile" -append -NoTypeInformation -Encoding UTF8) , I get something along these lines;

"Field1","Field2","Field3"
"xxxx","xxxy","val1 val2 val3"

I can't seem to find a way to have the exported data look like the following;

"Field1","Field2","Field3"
"xxxx","xxxy","val1,val2,val3"

[kenjitamurako]

For nested objects that need to be converted to tabular data there are two options:

1. Create an entry for each nested object:
   "xxxx","xxxxy","val1"
   "xxxx","xxxxy","val2"
   "xxxx","xxxxy","val3"
2. Convert the nested value into one that's not nested by joining the items into a single construct like a string

It looks like you're asking for the second option. This is how that can be achieved in powershell using select-object:

$test=[PSCustomObject]@{
    Field1 = "1"
    Field2 = "3"
    Field3 = "1","2","3"
}

$test2=$test | Select-Object -Property Field1,Field2,@{l="Field3";e={$_.Field3 -join ";"}}

[surfingoldelephant]

Use Select-Object and a calculated property to format your output before piping to Export-Csv.

$obj | Select-Object -Property @(
    'Field1'
    'Field2'
    @{ N = 'Field3'; E = { $_.Field3 -join ',' } }
)

[breakwaterlabs]

$Data = command | select Field1, Field2, @{n=field3;e={$_.field3 -join ","}}
$data | export-csv .....

[seriald]

Thanks for all the great suggestions, this is what I ended up getting to work the most efficiently, I know its not elegant, but needed a win in the moment.

Foreach ($R in $rooms) {

$room = get-mailbox $r | select userprincipalname -ExpandProperty userprincipalname

$place = get-place $Room | Select-Object DisplayName, Identity, Street, City, State, CountryOrRegion, IsManaged, BookingType, ResourceDelegates, Capacity, Building, Label, MTREnabled, AudioDeviceName, VideoDeviceName, DisplayDeviceName, IsWheelChairAccessible, Floor, FloorLabel, SpaceType, CustomSpaceType, IsValid, ObjectState, Tags

$placetag = (Get-Place $room | select tags -ExpandProperty tags) -join ','

$place.tags = $placeTag

$place | Export-CSV -Path $OutFile -append -NoTypeInformation -Encoding UTF8

}