Using Wild Cards in Powershell variables

Question

I have a folder that has weekly reports. Each report has the date of creation in the name example "report-A_2_05_19.pdf", "report-B_2_05_19.pdf", etc. I would like to create variables for these but since the date changes in the name of the reports each week I was trying to do this:

$rA = "c:\reports\report-A*.pdf"
$rb = "C:\reports\report-B*.pdf

When I do this and try to open the report using the wild cards it just prints to the screen:

c:\reports\report-A*.pdf

$pw = Get-Content C:\MailPW.txt | ConvertTo-SecureString
$cred = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential [email protected], $pw
Send-MailMessage -To [email protected] -from [email protected] -Subject "Attachments" -Body "Attachments." -attachments $rA, $rB -Smtpserver mail.domain.com -UseSsl -credential $cred

See How to Ask. Edit the question and show your minimal reproducible example and some example output showing the problem. — user1531971
– user1531971, Commented Feb 5, 2019 at 16:01
I am confused by the question.Like where do you use the variables $rA and $rb — ArcSet
– ArcSet, Commented Feb 5, 2019 at 16:19
$pw = Get-Content C:\MailPW.txt | ConvertTo-SecureString;$cred = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential [email protected], $pw; Send-MailMessage -To [email protected] -from [email protected] -Subject "Attachments" -Body "Attachments." -attachments $rA, $rB -Smtpserver mail.domain.com -UseSsl -credential $cred; — irishombian
– irishombian, Commented Feb 5, 2019 at 16:34

Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-20 09:12:55Z

2

If you look at the Docs for Send-MailMessage you will see that -Attachments does not support wildcards

Type: String[]

Aliases: PsPath

Position: Named

Default value: None

Accept pipeline input: True (ByValue)

Accept wildcard characters: False

So what you could do instead is incorporate Resolve-Path which does extrapolate paths from wildcards strings.

Send-MailMessage .... -attachments (Resolve-Path $rA, $rB).Path

Beware though that this could match more than you intended. You might need to validate the results before you attach the files.

I would also recommend splatting when provided large amounts of parameters and values.

$sendMailMessageParameters = @{
    To          = "[email protected]"
    from        = "[email protected]" 
    Subject     = "Attachments" 
    Body        = "Attachments." 
    attachments = (Resolve-Path $rA, $rB).Path
    Smtpserver  = "mail.domain.com "
    UseSsl      = $true
    credential  = $cred
}

Send-MailMessage @sendMailMessageParameters

edited Jun 20, 2020 at 9:12

CommunityBot

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answered Feb 5, 2019 at 17:00

Matt

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2 Comments

irishombian Over a year ago

Actually I ended up not using the Variables and just used the file path of the report in the -attachments with the wild card and that worked. My issue is not with the send-mailmessage but trying to get a wildcard to work in a variable.

Matt Over a year ago

@irishombian I don't understand then. Do you want PowerShell to interpret your string as a file path outright? You need to tell PowerShell how to deal with that. Get-Item would also work

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