title: Removing white spaces from string line and using it in an array
body: <p>I was looking through the old posts but I cannot find the very specific answer how to replace the white space in the string and then use it as an array.</p>
  
  <p>The input file consists the lines:</p>
  
  <pre><code>-rw-r--r--   1 myuser admin   315279199 May 12 02:46 2016_05_12_backup.tar.gz
  -rw-r--r--   1 myuser admin   315278122 May 13 04:56 2016_05_13_backup.tar.gz
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I want to receive the following output:</p>
  
  <pre><code>program executed on 2016-05-16 / 12:18:06
  to unix: 
  rm -fr 2016_05_12_backup.tar.gz
  rm -fr 2016_05_13_backup.tar.gz
  
  
  to excel log: 
  2016_05_12_backup.tar.gz
  2016_05_13_backup.tar.gz
  
  =============== END  ==============
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>My code is here: </p>
  
  <pre><code>$path_in = "C:\test\input.txt"
  $path_out = "C:\test\output.txt"
  
  $endMessage = "=============== END  =============="
  
  $reader = [System.IO.File]::OpenText($path_in)
  $get_time_message = "program executed on " + [datetime]::now.ToString('yyyy-MM-dd / HH:mm:ss')
  
  try {
  
  add-content $path_out $get_time_message
  add-content $path_out "to unix: "
  
  $long_string_to_excel =""
  
  
      while($true){
          $line = $reader.ReadLine()
  
          if ($line -eq $null) { break }
  
          # divide the input line into array - remove white space 
          # it is hard coded here below for the lines that consist two and three space characters
  
          $better_line =  $line.replace('   ',' ')
          $best_line = $better_line.replace('  ',' ').split(' ')
  
          $stringToOutput = "rm -fr " + $best_line[8]
  
          $long_string_to_excel = $long_string_to_excel + $best_line[8]  + "`r`n"
  
          add-content $path_out $stringToOutput
  
      }
  
      add-content $path_out "`n"
      add-content $path_out "to excel log: "
      add-content $path_out $long_string_to_excel
      add-content $path_out $endMessage
  
  }
  finally {
      $reader.Close()
  }
  write-host "program execution:`ncompleted"
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This script works ok, but it is "hard" coded for the input lines that consist two and three space characters. I wanted to use </p>
  
  <pre><code>    $better_line =  $line.replace(' +', ' ');
      $best_line = $better_line.split(' ')
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>instead of </p>
  
  <pre><code>    $better_line =  $line.replace('   ',' ')
      $best_line = $better_line.replace('  ',' ').split(' ')
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>but the results are incorrect:</p>
  
  <pre><code>program executed on 2016-05-16 / 12:18:04
  to unix: 
  rm -fr 315279199
  rm -fr 315278122
  
  
  to excel log: 
  315279199
  315278122
  
  =============== END  ==============
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Could you please advise on the solution how to replace the hard coded part so the script works for any type of white space in the single line?</p>