Retaining newlines in PowerShell string

Question

In a PowerShell script, I'm capturing the string output of an EXE file in a variable, then concatenating it with some other text to build an email body.

However, when I do this I find that the newlines in the output are reduced to spaces, making the total output unreadable.

# Works fine
.\other.exe

# Works fine
echo .\other.exe

# Works fine
$msg = other.exe
echo $msg

# Doesn't work -- newlines replaced with spaces
$msg = "Output of other.exe: " + (.\other.exe)

Why is this happening, and how can I fix it?

Keith Hill · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-13 20:34:10Z

16

Or you could simply set $OFS like so:

PS> $msg = 'a','b','c'
PS> "hi $msg"
hi a b c
PS> $OFS = "`r`n"
PS> "hi $msg"
hi a
b
c

From man about_preference_variables:

Output Field Separator. Specifies the character that separates the elements of an array when the array is converted to a string.

answered Dec 13, 2010 at 20:34

Keith Hill

204k44 gold badges370 silver badges377 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

JSBձոգչ Over a year ago

Upvoting this, because only after your answer did I grok that $msg isn't being set to a single string, but an array of lines which are by default concatenated with spaces.

Scott Saad Over a year ago

Great time saver and hidden gem. Excellent!

bernd_k · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-13 17:52:03Z

10

Perhaps this helps:

$msg = "Output of other.exe: " + "`r`n" + ( (.\other.exe) -join "`r`n")

You get a list of lines and not a text from other.exe

$a = ('abc', 'efg')
 "Output of other.exe: " + $a


 $a = ('abc', 'efg')
 "Output of other.exe: " +  "`r`n" + ($a -join "`r`n")

answered Dec 13, 2010 at 17:52

bernd_k

12.1k7 gold badges49 silver badges64 bronze badges

Comments

troutzoom · Accepted Answer · 2022-12-20 13:46:13Z

1

This is a good use for Out-String

Write-Output "My IP info: $(ipconfig.exe | Out-String)"

My IP info:
Windows IP Configuration


Ethernet adapter Ethernet 2:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : 2222::2222:2222:2222:5150%4
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.155
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

answered Dec 20, 2022 at 13:46

troutzoom

112 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Retaining newlines in PowerShell string

3 Answers 3

2 Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

2 Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related