Read .ini files with Powershell

In order to use the script below create an .ini file that contains one or more sections encapsulated in [] brackets and save it in the same folder as the script. The example uses a file called MyConfig.ini that contains the contents below:

;This is a comment.
[TestSection01]
01=Data from “01”= in section TestSection01
02=Data from “02”= in section TestSection01
03=Data from “03”= in section TestSection01
[TestSection02]
04=Data from “04”= in section TestSection02
05=Data from “05”= in section TestSection02
06=Data from “06”= in section TestSection02
[TestSection03]
07=Data from “07”= in section TestSection03
08=Data from “08”= in section TestSection03
09=Data from “09”= in section TestSection03

Copy the code below and save it with a filename and a .ps1 extenstion.

<pre class="wp-block-syntaxhighlighter-code"><strong>Function GetIniContent {
    [CmdletBinding()]  
    Param(  
        [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]  
        [ValidateScript({(Test-Path $_) -and ((Get-Item $_).Extension -eq ".ini")})]  
        [Parameter(ValueFromPipeline=$True,Mandatory=$True)]  
        [string]$FilePath  
    )  
      
    Begin  
        {Write-Verbose "$($MyInvocation.MyCommand.Name):: Function started"}  
    
    Process  
    {  
        Write-Verbose "$($MyInvocation.MyCommand.Name):: Processing file: $Filepath"  
              
        $ini = @{}  
        switch -regex -file $FilePath  
        {  
            "^\[(.+)\]$" # Section  
            {  
                $section = $matches[1]  
                $ini[$section] = @{}  
                $CommentCount = 0  
            }  
            "^(;.*)$" # Comment  
            {  
                if (!($section))  
                {  
                    $section = "No-Section"  
                    $ini[$section] = @{}  
                }  
                $value = $matches[1]  
                $CommentCount = $CommentCount + 1  
                $name = "Comment" + $CommentCount  
                $ini[$section][$name] = $value  
            }   
            "(.+?)\s*=\s*(.*)" # Key  
            {  
                if (!($section))  
                {  
                    $section = "No-Section"  
                    $ini[$section] = @{}  
                }  
                $name,$value = $matches[1..2]  
                $ini[$section][$name] = $value  
            }  
        }  
        Write-Verbose "$($MyInvocation.MyCommand.Name):: Finished Processing file: $FilePath"
        Return $ini  
    }  
    End  
        {Write-Verbose "$($MyInvocation.MyCommand.Name):: Function ended"}  
}

<# Script process begins here. #>
#Declare array variables that will hold the values in each section.
$TestSection01 = @()
$TestSection02 = @()
$TestSection03 = @()

#Read through the hash table returned by function GetIniContent.
$FileContent = GetIniContent ".\MyConfig.ini"
foreach ($i in $FileContent.Keys)
{
    Foreach ($j in ($FileContent[$i].keys | Sort-Object))
    {
        if ($i -like '*TestSection01*') {  
            if ($j -match "Comment[\d]+") {
                $TestSection01 += "$($FileContent[$i][$j])"
            }
            else {
                $TestSection01 += "$($FileContent[$i][$j])"
            }
        }
        elseif ($i -like '*TestSection02*') {
            if ($j -match "Comment[\d]+") {
                $TestSection02 += "$($FileContent[$i][$j])"
            }
            else {
                $TestSection02 += "$($FileContent[$i][$j])"
            }
        }
        elseif ($i -like '*TestSection03*') {
            if ($j -match "Comment[\d]+") {
                $TestSection03 += $j + "=" + "$($FileContent[$i][$j])"
            }
            else {
                $TestSection03 += $j + "=" + "$($FileContent[$i][$j])"
            }
        }
    }
}

#Read through the .ini sections arrays and do something with the info.
foreach($TestSection01s in $TestSection01) {
    Write-Host "Do something with $TestSection01s"
}

foreach($TestSection02s in $TestSection02) {
    Write-Host "Do something with $TestSection02s"
}

foreach($TestSection03s in $TestSection03) {
    Write-Host "Do something with $TestSection03s"
}</strong></pre>

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