In my attempts to work powershell into some of my automation scripting I've encountered something I can't make sense of. Here's the scenario. I have two command prompt windows open on a Windows 8.1 machine. Both are pointed to the same directory. In one window I launch the following powershell script:

do {
$request = get-content relayrequest.txt
echo $request
} until ($request -contains '1')

The text file initially contains 0, so the loop begins printing a column of 0's on the screen.  Meanwhile from the other command prompt window I type:

echo 1 >relayrequest.txt

and press enter.  The DO loop immediately reflects the change and begins printing a column of 1's on the screen, but does NOT end the loop.  Why isn't this variable comparison working.  I've tried it various ways and can't get the comparisons to work.  What am I missing?

• Edited by tommymaynard 17 hours 18 minutes ago

"-contains" works just fine for me.

What version of PowerShell.

Note that -contains works on any type and will search an array.  The results of Get-Content is an array.

V1 of PowerShell had some issues.

"-contains" works just fine for me.

What version of PowerShell.

Note that -contains works on any type and will search an array.  The results of Get-Content is an array.

V1 of PowerShell had some issues.

The result of Get-Content is an array if there is more than one line in the file.  But th

The result of Get-Content is an array if there is more than one line in the file.  But th

Doesn't matter:

PS C:\scripts> echo 1 > file.txt
PS C:\scripts> $x=Get-Content file.txt
PS C:\scripts> $x -contains '1'
True

It dooesn't fly:

PS C:\scripts> echo 123 > file.txt
PS C:\scripts> $x=Get-Content file.txt
PS C:\scripts> $x -contains '1'
False

PS C:\scripts> echo 'the quick brown fox is dead' > file.txt
PS C:\scripts> $x=Get-Content file.txt
PS C:\scripts> $x -contains '1'
False

Unless you are on PowerShell V1

Doesn't matter:

PS C:\scripts> echo 1 > file.txt
PS C:\scripts> $x=Get-Content file.txt
PS C:\scripts> $x -contains '1'
True

The result of Get-Content is an array if there is more than one line in the file.  But th

I don't know why I've not been able to make -contains or -eq work in my system.  However, -match and -notmatch are working for me.  So I'll switch to another question.  If I have a text file that contains the the file name "sound.wav" as a string and I want to have powershell launch the executable sounder.exe with that extracted string as its target or parameter, how do I structure that command? I need to be able to change the file name contained in the text file and have powershell play whatever file I call for using sounder.exe.

No. No. No. No.

Mission creep not allowed.  New question means start a new topic.  This new question has no relation to the current topic.

Apologies.

Not a problem.  It is just not good for other searching forums for help by topic.

• Edited by tommymaynard Saturday, February 07, 2015 6:13 PM

• Marked as answer by Chalk-X CPG 20 hours 43 minutes ago

• Marked as answer by Chalk-X CPG Sunday, February 08, 2015 2:48 PM