PowerShell: How do I convert an array object to a string in PowerShell?
PowershellPowershell 2.0Powershell Problem Overview
How can I convert an array object to string?
I tried:
$a = "This", "Is", "a", "cat"
[system.String]::Join(" ", $a)
with no luck. What are different possibilities in PowerShell?
Powershell Solutions
Solution 1 - Powershell
$a = 'This', 'Is', 'a', 'cat'
Using double quotes (and optionally use the separator $ofs
)
# This Is a cat
"$a"
# This-Is-a-cat
$ofs = '-' # after this all casts work this way until $ofs changes!
"$a"
Using operator join
# This-Is-a-cat
$a -join '-'
# ThisIsacat
-join $a
Using conversion to [string]
# This Is a cat
[string]$a
# This-Is-a-cat
$ofs = '-'
[string]$a
Solution 2 - Powershell
I found that piping the array to the Out-String
cmdlet works well too.
For example:
PS C:\> $a | out-string
This
Is
a
cat
It depends on your end goal as to which method is the best to use.
Solution 3 - Powershell
1> $a = "This", "Is", "a", "cat"
2> [system.String]::Join(" ", $a)
Line two performs the operation and outputs to host, but does not modify $a:
3> $a = [system.String]::Join(" ", $a)
4> $a
This Is a cat
5> $a.Count
1
Solution 4 - Powershell
From a pipe
# This Is a cat
'This', 'Is', 'a', 'cat' | & {"$input"}
# This-Is-a-cat
'This', 'Is', 'a', 'cat' | & {$ofs='-';"$input"}
Write-Host
# This Is a cat
Write-Host 'This', 'Is', 'a', 'cat'
# This-Is-a-cat
Write-Host -Separator '-' 'This', 'Is', 'a', 'cat'
Solution 5 - Powershell
You could specify type like this:
[string[]] $a = "This", "Is", "a", "cat"
Checking the type:
$a.GetType()
Confirms:
IsPublic IsSerial Name BaseType -------- -------- ---- -------- True True String[] System.Array
Outputting $a:
PS C:> $a This Is a cat
Solution 6 - Powershell
$a = "This", "Is", "a", "cat"
foreach ( $word in $a ) { $sent = "$sent $word" }
$sent = $sent.Substring(1)
Write-Host $sent