PowerShell: Working with Strings and Hashtables - string

Question

I have this code:
$passwordsParameters = "sysPassword = 12 &&& testPass = 13 &&& systemPassword = 10"
$parametersList = #($passwordsParameters -split '&&&')
$passwordsTable = #{}
ForEach ($parameter in $parametersList) {
$splitToKeyValue = #($parameter -split '=')
$passwordsTable += $passwordsTable = #{
$splitToKeyValue[0].trim() = $splitToKeyValue[1].trim()
}
}
ForEach ($pass in $passwordsTable.Keys) {
if ($passwordsTable[$pass] -ne "") {
Write-Host "set $pass ="$passwordsTable[$pass]""
} else {
Write-Host "A value for the parameter $pass was not entered."
}
}
# Add-Content "d:\myFile.txt" "set $pass ="$passwordsTable[$pass]""
Which perfectly works when I use Write-Host. But I want to do something like in the comment in line 25. I tried several ways but I always got a static string instead of the values that I get from the Hashtable.
At the end I want to have something like:
set pass1 = 12
set pass2 = 5
in myFile.txt
Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

You could change Write-Host (just prints to a console) to Write-Output ( which passes an object to a pipeline). Write-Output does not print to the console.
$passwordsParameters = "sysPassword = 12 &&& testPass = 13 &&& systemPassword = 10"
$parametersList = #($passwordsParameters -split '&&&')
$passwordsTable = #{}
ForEach ($parameter in $parametersList) {
$splitToKeyValue = #($parameter -split '=')
$passwordsTable += $passwordsTable = #{
$splitToKeyValue[0].trim() = $splitToKeyValue[1].trim()
}
}
$counter=0
ForEach ($pass in $passwordsTable.Keys) {
if ($passwordsTable[$pass] -ne "") {
$counter++
Write-Output "set "pass$counter = $passwordsTable[$pass]"`n" | Add-Content -NoNewline myFile.txt
} else {
Write-Host "A value for the parameter $pass was not entered."
}
}
Output:
set pass1=10
set pass2=13
set pass3=12

Answer 2

You can replace the first foreach loop if you simply replace all the &&& by a newline and use cmdlet ConvertFrom-StringData.
Add-Content also has a switch called -PassThru that will let you write to the file and also output to console.
$passwordsParameters = "sysPassword = 12 &&& testPass = 13 &&& systemPassword = 10"
$passwordsTable = $passwordsParameters -replace '&&&', [Environment]::NewLine | ConvertFrom-StringData
foreach ($pass in $passwordsTable.Keys) {
if ($passwordsTable[$pass]) {
$msg = 'set {0} = {1}' -f $pass, $passwordsTable[$pass]
# or use: $msg = "set $pass = $($passwordsTable[$pass])"
# write this to the file. switch -PassThru will also output to the console
Add-Content -Path 'D:\myFile.txt' -Value $msg -PassThru
} else {
Write-Host "A value for the parameter '$pass' was not entered."
}
}