Better way of exporting the output in columns rather than rows using Export-Csv method in PowerShell for file hash comparison in Excel side by side - powershell-4.0

Question

I have two folders (Fold1 and Fold2) with a lots of files in different formats (.doc, .pdf, .xml, .html) in them, and total number of items (files) may vary in each folder. I am trying to compare the MD5 checksums for each file present in both the folders and for the files that are extra in either folders just list their checksums, so that I can copy/check those files later.
This is where I have reached:
$path1 = "C:\Users\username\Desktop\Fold1"
$path2 = "C:\Users\username\Desktop\Fold2"
$Data1 = dir "C:\Users\username\Desktop\Fold1" -Recurse |
Where-Object {!$_.PSIsContainer} |
Get-FileHash -Algorithm MD5 |
select #{n='Hash';e={$_.Hash}}, #{n='File';e={Split-Path $_.Path -Leaf}}
$Data2 = dir "C:\Users\username\Desktop\Fold2" -Recurse |
Where-Object {!$_.PSIsContainer} |
Get-FileHash -Algorithm MD5 |
select #{n='Hash';e={$_.Hash}}, #{n='File';e={Split-Path $_.Path -Leaf}}
$Full = foreach ($d in $Data1) {
$d | Select-Object Hash, File,#{n="Hash2";e={
($Data2 | Where-Object File -eq $d.File).Hash
}}
}
$Full | Export-Csv .\report.csv
This gives output like this:
Problem 1:
Since I am using Where-Object File -eq $d.File, so just in case if Folder 2 has one extra file than Folder 1, in such scenario it won't capture the extra file and the comparison goes wrong because I need to capture all the items regardless. To escape this I tried adding .Count, which looks like this:
$Data1Count = (Get-ChildItem -File -Path $path1).Count
$Data2Count = (Get-ChildItem -File -Path $path2).Count
if ($Data1Count -gt $Data2Count) {
$Full = foreach ($d in $Data1) {
$d | Select-Object Hash,File,#{n="Hash2";e={
($Data2 | Where-Object File -eq $d.File).Hash
}}
}
$Full
} elseif ($Data2Count -gt $Data1Count) {
$Full = foreach ($d in $Data2) {
$d | Select-Object Hash,File,#{n="Hash2";e={
($Data1 | Where-Object File -eq $d.File).Hash
}}
}
$Full
} else {
$Full = foreach ($d in $Data1) {
$d | Select-Object Hash,File,#{n="Hash2";e={
($Data2 | Where-Object File -eq $d.File).Hash
}}
}
$Full
}
Problem 2:
This method lists all the items (files) from one of the folders (Folder1 or Folder2) whichever has higher file counts, but it still does not list the extra files in the other folder. Just to show you, here is the directory structure:
and this is the output (since number of files in Folder 2 is > Folder 1):
What I am trying to achieve is something like the following as the output of comparison, which lists all the matching files as well as extra files in either folders:

Answer 1

What you're trying to do isn't how you'd handle something like this in PowerShell. The appropriate way of tackling this would be enumerating the files like you do in your first code sample, and then compare the lists with Compare-Object:
Compare-Object $Data1 $Data2 -Property Hash -IncludeEqual -PassThru
which would give you output like this:
Hash File SideIndicator
---- ---- -------------
1DA53AC45042DB9413D1A6F055F7C5BA a.docx ==
2E9D15DF495521763D6CD5090B7DEF48 b.pdf ==
8DA3E12E4908F49055BD679D68848D5A c.pdf =>
6F0D8230A93276D335CE656CEB54B764 d.doc <=
You can then use the side indicator for transforming the data like this:
Compare-Object $Data1 $Data2 -IncludeEqual -Property Hash -PassThru |
Select-Object #{n='Hash';e={if ($_.SideIndicator -ne '=>') {$_.Hash}}},
#{n='File';e={if ($_.SideIndicator -ne '=>') {$_.File}}},
#{n='Hash2';e={if ($_.SideIndicator -ne '<=') {$_.Hash}}},
#{n='File2';e={if ($_.SideIndicator -ne '<=') {$_.File}}}
which would produce output like this:
Hash File Hash2 File2
---- ---- ----- -----
1DA53AC45042DB9413D1A6F055F7C5BA a.docx 1DA53AC45042DB9413D1A6F055F7C5BA a.docx
2E9D15DF495521763D6CD5090B7DEF48 b.pdf 2E9D15DF495521763D6CD5090B7DEF48 b.pdf
8DA3E12E4908F49055BD679D68848D5A c.pdf
6F0D8230A93276D335CE656CEB54B764 d.doc
or transform the data like this:
Compare-Object $Data1 $Data2 -IncludeEqual -Property Hash -PassThru |
Select-Object Hash, File,
#{n=$path1;e={if ($_.SideIndicator -ne '=>') {'X'}}},
#{n=$path2;e={if ($_.SideIndicator -ne '<=') {'X'}}}
which would give a result like this:
Hash File C:\...\Fold1 C:\...\Fold2
---- ---- ------------ ------------
1DA53AC45042DB9413D1A6F055F7C5BA a.docx X X
2E9D15DF495521763D6CD5090B7DEF48 b.pdf X X
8DA3E12E4908F49055BD679D68848D5A c.pdf X
6F0D8230A93276D335CE656CEB54B764 d.doc X
Then export that output to a CSV via Export-Csv.