Output variable value from variable within a variable

Question

Im having trouble outputting the value of a variable name that is in a variable. I have one array that contains the name of several other arrays like this:

>$arrayx1
array00
array01
array02
array03
array10
array11
array12
array13

Each of those arrays have their own value, I want to output that value to a file in a loop. I got the loop and everything else working, except it outputs the name of the arrays and not the arrays value.

$outnr1 = 0
$outnr2 = 0
$null | out-file $path
foreach ($nr3 in $arrayx1) {
    $output = $arrayx1[$outnr2]
    echo "$($output)" | out-file $path -encoding Unicode -append
    $outnr2 = $outnr2 + 1
    if ($outnr2 -gt 3) {
        $outnr1 = $outnr1 + 1
        }
    }

The file ends up looking like $arrayx1

To get variable by name you should use Get-Variable cmdlet. — user4003407
– user4003407, Commented Jan 13, 2016 at 13:34

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 10:27:56Z

1

Variable variables (like $$Name in PHP) aren't supported in PowerShell.

Instead, as mentioned in the comments, you should use Get-Variable to retrieve the value of the a variable you have the name of:

foreach($varName in $arrayx1)
{
    $var = Get-Variable -Name $varName -ValueOnly
    $var | Out-File $path -Encoding Unicode -Append
}

I'm not entirely clear on what you're trying to accomplish with the $outnr1 and $outnr2 variables in your original example, but if you want to limit the output to just the first 3 items in $arrayx1, use Select-Object -First:

foreach($varName in $arrayx1 | Select-Object -First 3)
{
    $var = Get-Variable -Name $varName -ValueOnly
    $var | Out-File $path -Encoding Unicode -Append
}

or the range operator:

foreach($varName in $arrayx1[0..2])
{
    $var = Get-Variable -Name $varName -ValueOnly
    $var | Out-File $path -Encoding Unicode -Append
}

edited May 23, 2017 at 10:27

CommunityBot

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answered Jan 13, 2016 at 14:05

Mathias R. Jessen

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1 Comment

Nihth Over a year ago

Thanks, that solved it! Im going to use the $outnr1 and $outnr2 to set line breaks in the file that is being written to.

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