CODEWITHSUNDEEP
powershellpowershell-3.0
Mowgli
Mowgli

Reputation: 3512

How can I set a variable from a text file's content in PowerShell?

I know how to use cat file 

cat file.txt

but I have variable 

[string]$body = "Body message here"

I need help changing it to get the text content from file.txt

I tried, but it didn't work.

  [string]$body = $cat file.txt

Here is full script, I am trying to change param section.

param 
(        
    [string]$email = $(read-host "Enter a recipient email"),
    [string]$subject = $(read-host "Enter the subject header"), 
    [string]$body = $(read-host "Enter the email text (optional)")
)

to

param 
(        
    [string]$email = "[email protected]",
    [string]$subject = "server", 
    [string]$body = gc C:\Users\myuser\Documents\somefolder\GnuWin32\bin\status.txt
)

# ==========================================================================
#   Functions
# ==========================================================================

function Send-Email
(
    [string]$recipientEmail = $(Throw "At least one recipient email is required!"), 
    [string]$subject = $(Throw "An email subject header is required!"), 
    [string]$body
)
{
    $outlook = New-Object -comObject  Outlook.Application 
    $mail = $outlook.CreateItem(0) 
    $mail.Recipients.Add($recipientEmail) 
    $mail.Subject = $subject 
    $mail.Body = $body

    # For HTML encoded emails 
    # $mail.HTMLBody = "<HTML><HEAD>Text<B>BOLD</B>  <span style='color:#E36C0A'>Color Text</span></HEAD></HTML>"

    # To send an attachment 
    # $mail.Attachments.Add("C:\Temp\Test.txt") 

    $mail.Send() 
    Write-Host "Email sent!"
}

Write-Host "Starting Send-MailViaOutlook Script."

# Send email using Outlook
Send-Email -recipientEmail $email -subject $subject -body $body

Write-Host "Closing Send-MailViaOutlook Script."

Upvotes: 2

Views: 7783

Answers (2)

JaredPar
JaredPar

Reputation: 754585

Try the following

[string]$body = gc file.txt

The command gc is an alias for Get-Content which will get the content of the specified item and return it as a string

EDIT

As C.B. pointed out, in your example you are trying to use $cat instead of cat. $cat attempts to refer to a variable which isn't defined but cat is another alias for Get-Content

EDIT2

It looks like you are trying to initialize a param. If so you need to do the following

[string]$body = $(gc "C:\Users\myuser\Documents\somefolder\GnuWin32\bin\status.txt")

Upvotes: 3

CB.
CB.

Reputation: 60910

Change:

[string]$body = ( gc C:\Users\myuser\Documents\somefolder\GnuWin32\bin\status.txt )

note the brackets.

Upvotes: 3

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