Creating a 2D Array with escaped characters - arrays

Question

I have a CSV, let's call it test.csv
"country","city","population","remarks"
"germany","munih","1472000","i am a
line
brake"
"italy","rome","2873000","<>|'"
"spain","madrid","6642000","!"§$%&/("
I need a full HTML escaped 2D JS-array without headers and names as like below:
"germany","munih","1472000","i am a \nline\nbrake"
respectively:
var MyVar = [["germany","munih","1472000","i am a \nline\nbrake"],["italy","rome","2873000","<>|'"],["spain","madrid","6642000","!§$%&/(""]];
ConvertTo-Json can escape, but did not find any easy way to produce an 2D-Array without Object Names:
Import-Csv ".\test.csv" | ConvertTo-Json -EscapeHandling EscapeHtml
[
{
"country": "germany",
"city": "munih",
"population": "1472000",
"remarks": "i am a \r\nline\r\nbrake"
},
{
"country": "italy",
"city": "rome",
"population": "2873000",
"remarks": "\u003c\u003e|\u0027"
},
{
"country": "spain",
"city": "madrid",
"population": "6642000",
"remarks": "!§$%\u0026/(\u0022"
}
]
ConverTo-CSV does a good job, but can't escape:
Import-Csv ".\test.csv" | ConvertTo-Csv -UseQuotes Always
"country","city","population","remarks"
"germany","munih","1472000","i am a
line
brake"
"italy","rome","2873000","<>|'"
"spain","madrid","6642000","!§$%&/("""
Following routine works. But I believe, there must be easier way.
$t1 = Import-Csv ".\test.csv"
$arr_len = $t1.Count
$obj_len = $t1[0].Psobject.Properties.value.count
$str_builder = [System.Text.StringBuilder]::new()
for ($i=0; $i -lt $arr_len; $i++){
#first outer loop
if ($i -eq 0){[void]$str_builder.Append('var MyVar = [')}
for ($j=0; $j -lt $obj_len; $j++){
#first inner loop
if ($j -eq 0){[void]$str_builder.Append('[')}
#$t1[$i].Psobject.Properties.Name[$j]
$each = $t1[$i].Psobject.Properties.Value[$j]
$each_esc = ([System.Net.WebUtility]::HtmlEncode($each)) -replace("`r`n|`r|'n","\n")
[void]$str_builder.Append('"')
[void]$str_builder.Append($each_esc)
[void]$str_builder.Append('"')
#last inner loop
if ($j -eq ($obj_len-1)){
if ($i -ne ($arr_len-1)){
[void]$str_builder.Append('],')
} else {
[void]$str_builder.Append(']')
}
} else{
[void]$str_builder.Append(',')
}
}
#last outer loop
if ($i -eq ($arr_len-1)){[void]$str_builder.Append('];')}
}
$final = $str_builder.ToString()
[void]$str_builder.Clear()
Any hints, ideas? Thx :)

Answer 1

You could simplify the code like:
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Web
$data = Import-Csv -Path 'D:\Test\test.csv'
$jsData = foreach ($item in $data) {
# create an array of quoted encoded strings
$values = $item.PsObject.Properties.Value | ForEach-Object {
'"{0}"' -f [System.Web.HttpUtility]::HtmlEncode(($_ -replace '\r?\n', '\n'))
}
# output the encoded strings grouped inside square brackets
'[{0}]' -f ($values -join ',')
}
# combine the resulting data into a 2D array
$result = 'var MyVar = [{0}];' -f ($jsData -join ',')
$result
Output:
var MyVar = [["germany","munih","1472000","i am a \nline\nbrake"],["italy","rome","2873000","<>|'"],["spain","madrid","6642000","!§$%&/(""]];

Answer 2

Right from the given input it isn't possible to produce the required output.
Youe have to create a nested list first, then the json document.
Try the following:
$list = [System.Collections.Generic.List[psobject]]::new()
foreach($item in $input) {
$nestedList = [System.Collections.Generic.List[string]]::new()
$itemProps = $item.psobject.properties
foreach($itemProp in $itemProps) {
$nestedList.Add($itemProp.Value)
}
$list.Add($nestedList)
}
$list | ConvertTo-Json -EscapeHandling EscapeHtml

Answer 3

<#
$PSVersionTable.PSVersion
Major Minor Patch PreReleaseLabel BuildLabel
----- ----- ----- --------------- ----------
7 1 0
#>
$fieldsCount = 4
$rawText = #'
"country","city","population","remarks"
"germany","munih","1472000","i am a
line
brake"
"italy","rome","2873000","<>|'"
"spain","madrid","6642000","!"§$%&/("
'#
$rawArray = $rawText.Trim("`"") -split "`r`n" -join "," -split '","'
$table = $(for ($i = $fieldsCount; $i -lt $rawArray.Count; $i += $fieldsCount){
[PSCustomObject]#{
country = $rawArray[$i]
city = $rawArray[$i+1]
population = $rawArray[$i+2]
remarks = $rawArray[$i+3]
}
})
$table | ConvertTo-Json
<#
country city population remarks
------- ---- ---------- -------
germany munih 1472000 i am a ,line,brake
italy rome 2873000 <>|'
spain madrid 6642000 !"§$%&/(
[
{
"country": "germany",
"city": "munih",
"population": "1472000",
"remarks": "i am a ,line,brake"
},
{
"country": "italy",
"city": "rome",
"population": "2873000",
"remarks": "<>|'"
},
{
"country": "spain",
"city": "madrid",
"population": "6642000",
"remarks": "!\"§$%&/("
}
]
#>