object vs string output

Question

Why is it when I run this command in powershell:

 $output = (svn stat) -match '^\?' # which $output is an [object] in this case.

I get this output in the PowerGUI Script Editor Console when viewing the variable $output:

?       Projects\TestProject\Thisisatest.txt
?       Projects\TestProject\Thisisatest - Copy.txt

but when I run this command:

[string] $output = (svn stat) -match '^\?'

I get these results:

?       Projects\TestProject\Thisisatest.txt ?       Projects\TestProject\Thisisatest - Copy.txt

It seems when using [string] it does some type of encoding where it takes away newlines and I'm not sure why?

UPDATED user978511 here is the the small example code and output

Clear-Host
Set-Location "C:\svn\Development\Projects\TestProjects\build"
$output = (svn stat) -match '^\?'
'$output results'
$output

'$output2 results'
[string] $output2 = (svn stat) -match '^\?'
$output2

Output:

$output results
?       Projects\TestProject\Thisisatest.txt
?       Projects\TestProject\Thisisatest - Copy.txt
$output2 results
?       Projects\TestProject\Thisisatest.txt ?       Projects\TestProject\Thisisatest - Copy.txt

Thanks for anyone that can help.

And what behavior do you need?

Andrey Marchuk
– Andrey Marchuk

2011-12-23 15:01:17 +00:00
Commented Dec 23, 2011 at 15:01 — Andrey Marchuk
– Andrey Marchuk, Commented Dec 23, 2011 at 15:01

jon Z · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-23 14:58:34Z

4

When PowerShell casts an array to a single string it converts the members to strings and concatenates them with spaces between each.

$output2 = [string]::join([environment]::newline, $output) will do what you want.

answered Dec 23, 2011 at 14:58

jon Z

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2 Comments

null_pointer Over a year ago

Thanks, that worked! So (svn stat) -match '^\?' is returning an array of strings?

Andy Arismendi Over a year ago

Most command line commands will provide feedback to the user with a sort of WriteLine method. When assigning the output to a variable, Powershell will store each line in an object and make an array out of it. The object array can be down casted to a string array. You can also use the -join operater to simplify the syntax jon provided. Here's an example using the -join operator: $output2 = $output -join [environment]::newline.

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