Count lines in file and store in Variable

Question

I need to count the number of lines in a text file and use this as my loop variable for my for loop. Problem being this:

$lines = Get-Content -Path PostBackupCheck-Textfile.txt  | Measure-Object -Line

Although this does return the number of lines, it returns it in a state that cannot be compared to an integer in my loop:

for ($i=0; $i -le $lines; $i++)
    {Write-Host "Line"}

Answer 1

Measure-Object returns a TextMeasureInfo object, not an integer:

PS C:\> $lines = Get-Content .\foo.txt | Measure-Object -Line
PS C:\> $lines.GetType()

IsPublic IsSerial Name                 BaseType
-------- -------- ----                 --------
True     False    TextMeasureInfo      Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.MeasureInfo

The information you want to use is provided by the Lines property of that object:

PS C:\> $lines | Get-Member


   TypeName: Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.TextMeasureInfo

Name        MemberType Definition
----        ---------- ----------
Equals      Method     bool Equals(System.Object obj)
GetHashCode Method     int GetHashCode()
GetType     Method     type GetType()
ToString    Method     string ToString()
Characters  Property   System.Nullable`1[[System.Int32, mscorlib, Vers...
Lines       Property   System.Nullable`1[[System.Int32, mscorlib, Vers...
Property    Property   System.String Property {get;set;}
Words       Property   System.Nullable`1[[System.Int32, mscorlib, Vers...

That property returns an actual integer:

PS C:\> $lines.Lines.GetType()

IsPublic IsSerial Name                 BaseType
-------- -------- ----                 --------
True     True     Int32                System.ValueType


PS C:\> $lines.Lines
5

so you can use that in your loop:

PS C:\> for ($i = 0; $i -le $lines.Lines; $i++) { echo $i }
0
1
2
3
4
5
PS C:\> _

Answer 2

For what it's worth, I found the above example returned the wrong number of lines. I found this returned the correct count:

$measure = Get-Content c:\yourfile.xyz | Measure-Object 
$lines = $measure.Count
echo "line count is: ${lines}"

You probably want to test both methods to figure out what gives you the answer you want. Using "Line" returned 20 and "Count" returned 24. The file contained 24 lines.

Answer 3

$lines = Get-Content -Path PostBackupCheck-Textfile.txt | Measure-Object -Line | select -expand Lines