How do I concatenate strings and variables in PowerShell?

Try wrapping whatever you want to print out in parentheses:

Write-Host ($assoc.Id + " - " + $assoc.Name + " - " + $assoc.Owner)

Your code is being interpreted as many parameters being passed to [`Write-Host`][1]. Wrapping it up inside parentheses will concatenate the values and then pass the resulting value as a single parameter.

[1]:

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Here is another way as an alternative:

Write-Host (" {0} - {1} - {2}" -f $assoc.Id, $assoc.Name, $assoc.Owner)

Another option is:

$string = $assoc.ID
$string += " - "
$string += $assoc.Name
$string += " - "
$string += $assoc.Owner
Write-Host $string

The "best" method is probably the one C.B. suggested:

Write-Host "$($assoc.Id) - $($assoc.Name) - $($assoc.Owner)"

(Current PowerShell version 5.1.17134.407)

This also works as of now:

$myVar = "Hello"

echo "${myVar} World"

Note: this only works with double quotes

Just for the fun. You can also access the values of the PSObject directly like below:

$assoc.psobject.Properties.value -join " - "

But if you do not specify that the object should be ordered, PowerShell will display the values in a random order. So you should add the flag `[ordered]`:

$assoc = [pscustomobject] [ordered] @{
Id = 42
Name = "Slim Shady"
Owner = "Eminem"
}

If you're concatenating strings to build file paths, use the [Join-Path][1] command:

Join-Path C:\temp "MyNewFolder"

It'll automatically add the appropriate trailing / leading slashes for you, which makes things a lot easier.

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There is a difference between single and double quotes. (I am using PowerShell 4).

You can do this (as [Benjamin said][1]):

$name = 'Slim Shady'
Write-Host 'My name is'$name
-> My name is Slim Shady

Or you can do this:

$name = 'Slim Shady'
Write-Host "My name is $name"
-> My name is Slim Shady

The single quotes are for literal, output the string exactly like this, please.
The double quotes are for when you want some pre-processing done (such as variables, special characters, etc.)

So:

$name = "Marshall Bruce Mathers III"
Write-Host "$name"
-> Marshall Bruce Mathers III

Whereas:

$name = "Marshall Bruce Mathers III"
Write-Host '$name'
-> $name

(I find *[How-to: Escape characters, Delimiters and Quotes][2]* good for reference).


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While expression:

"string1" + "string2" + "string3"

will concatenate the string, you need to put a $ in front of the parenthesis to make it evaluate as a single argument when passed to a PowerShell command. Example:

Write-Host $( "string1" + "string2" + "string3" )

As a bonus, if you want it to span multiple lines, then you need to use the awkward backtick syntax at the end of the line (without any spaces or characters to the right of the backtick).

Example:

Write-Host $(`
"The rain in " +`
"Spain falls mainly " +`
"in the plains" )`
-ForegroundColor Yellow

(Actually, I think PowerShell is currently implemented a little bit wrong by requiring unnecessary backticks between parentheses. If Microsoft would just follow [Python][1] or [Tcl][2] parenthesis rules of allowing you to put as many newlines as you want between the starting and ending parenthesis then they would solve most of the problems that people don't like about PowerShell related to line continuation, and concatenation of strings.

I've found that you can leave the backticks off sometimes on line continuations between parenthesis, but it's really flaky and unpredictable if it will work... It's better to just add the backticks.)


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$assoc = @{
Id = 34
FirstName = "John"
LastName = "Doe"
Owner = "Wife"
}

$assocId = $assoc.Id
$assocFN = $assoc.FirstName
$assocLN = $assoc.LastName
$assocName = $assocFN, $assocLN -Join " "
$assocOwner = $assoc.Owner

$assocJoin = $assocId, $assocName, $assocOwner -join " - "
$assocJoin
#Output = 34 - John Doe - Wife

As noted elsewhere, you can use join.

If you are using commands as inputs (as I was), use the following syntax:

```
-join($(Command1), "," , $(Command2))
```

This would result in the two outputs separated by a comma.

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