PowerShell convert Char Array to string

Question

I've read various methods for converting a char array to a string in PowerShell, but none of them seem to work with my string. The source of my string is:

$ComputerName = "6WMPSN1"
$WarrantyURL = "http://www.dell.com/support/troubleshooting/au/en/aulca1/TroubleShooting/ProductSelected/ServiceTag/$ComputerName"
$WarrantyPage = Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $WarrantyURL
$WPageText = $WarrantyPage.AllElements | Where-Object {$_.id -eq "TopContainer"} | Select-Object outerText

The resulting WPageText is an Char Array so I can't use Select-String -Pattern "days" -Context

I've tried:

$WPageText -join
[string]::Join("", ($WPageText))

as per http://softwaresalariman.blogspot.com.au/2007/12/powershell-string-and-char-sort-and.html

The only things I have been successful with so far is:

$TempFile = New-Item -ItemType File -Path $env:Temp -Name $(Get-Random)
$WPageText | Out-File -Path $TempFile
$String = Get-Content -Path $TempFile

Any way to do this aside from writing and reading a file?

mklement0 · Accepted Answer · 2016-01-21 03:11:33Z

19

You can use the -join operator (with extra parts to prove datatypes):

$x = "Hello World".ToCharArray();
$x.GetType().FullName         # returns System.Char[]
$x.Length                     # 11 as that's the length of the array
$s = -join $x                 # Join all elements of the array
$s                            # Return "Hello World"
$s.GetType().FullName         # returns System.String

Alternatively, the join can also be written as:

$x -join ""

Both are legal; -join without an LHS just merges the array on its RHS. The second format joins the LHS using the RHS as the delimiter. See help about_Join for more.

edited Jan 21, 2016 at 3:11

mklement0

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answered Feb 17, 2014 at 12:59

Callie J

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2 Comments

Andrew Shepherd Over a year ago

+1, but I don't see any need to explicitly cast $x to a char array. A much simpler "-join $x" works fine for me.

Callie J Over a year ago

It might be a hangover from earlier versions of Powershell - I honestly don't know; I just saw this method advised somewhere some time back.

mklement0 · Accepted Answer · 2016-01-21 03:40:13Z

10

The cheap shot way of doing this is by modifying the $ofs variable and enclosing the array in a string. $ofs is an internal PS separator for printing arrays using Object.ToString() from .NET.

$a = "really cool string"
$c = $a.ToCharArray()
$ofs = '' # clear the separator; it is ' ' by default
"$c"

You can (should) also use the System.String constructor like this:

$a = "another mind blowing string"
$result = New-Object System.String ($a,0,$a.Length)

edited Jan 21, 2016 at 3:40

mklement0

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answered Oct 5, 2012 at 18:57

Carlos Nunez

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1 Comment

mklement0 Over a year ago

++ for the $OFS info; worth recommending localizing the $OFS change, e.g.: & { $OFS=''; "$c" }. Note that even though the effective default is a single space, the variable $OFS is by default not defined. Not sure what you're recommending regarding the string constructor; $result = $a does the same thing much simpler and more efficiently.

mhu · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-07 08:20:39Z

9

The fastest way to convert the char array to a string:

[String]::new($WPageText)

answered Jun 7, 2019 at 8:20

mhu

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Comments

JPBlanc · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-06 04:58:45Z

Whatever your are looking for, I think that you miss something concerning $WPageText. if you have a look it's a PSCustomObject inside which you are interested in outerText which is a string.

PS C:\PowerShell> $WPageText | Get-Member

   TypeName: Selected.System.Management.Automation.PSCustomObject

Name        MemberType   Definition                                                                                           ----        ----------   ----------                                              
Equals      Method       bool Equals(System.Object obj)                                                                                                                               
GetHashCode Method       int GetHashCode()                                                                                                                                            
GetType     Method       type GetType()                                                                                                                                               
ToString    Method       string ToString()                                                                                                                                            
outerText   NoteProperty System.String outerText= ...

So

PS C:\PowerShell> $WPageText.outerText 

 Precision M6500 
Service Tag: 6WMPSN1 

 Select A Different Product > 
Warranty Information 
Warranty information for this product is not available.

Gerson eliu sorto · Accepted Answer · 2022-10-18 12:45:07Z

0

$NewFilename = "77gy-092722-gra" 

$JobArray = $NewFilename.Split("-")

$JobArrayFirstBlock = $JobArray[0].ToCharArray()
   
$Result = "" 

foreach($Character in $JobArrayFirstBlock) 
{ 
   $Result = $Result+$Character.ToString()
}

answered Oct 18, 2022 at 12:45

Gerson eliu sorto

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