Output PowerShell variables to a text file

Question

I'm new to PowerShell and have a script which loops through Active Directory searching for certain computers. I get several variables and then run functions to check things like WMI and registry settings.

In the console, my script runs great and simple Write-Host command prints the data on the screen as I want. I know about Export-Csv when using the pipeline...but I'm not looking to print from the pipeline.

I want to write the variables to a text file, continue the loop, and check the next computer in AD...output the next iteration of the same variables on the next line. Here is my Write-Host:

Write-Host ($computer)","($Speed)","($Regcheck)","($OU) 

Output file:

$computer,$Speed,$Regcheck | out-file -filepath C:\temp\scripts\pshell\dump.txt -append -width 200 

It gives me the data, but each variable is on its own line. Why? I'd like all the variables on one line with comma separation. Is there a simple way to do this akin to VB writeline? My PowerShell version appears to be 2.0.

Answer 1

I usually construct custom objects in these loops, and then add these objects to an array that I can easily manipulate, sort, export to CSV, etc.:

# Construct an out-array to use for data export $OutArray = @()  # The computer loop you already have foreach ($server in $serverlist)     {         # Construct an object         $myobj = "" | Select "computer", "Speed", "Regcheck"          # Fill the object         $myobj.computer = $computer         $myobj.speed = $speed         $myobj.regcheck = $regcheck          # Add the object to the out-array         $outarray += $myobj          # Wipe the object just to be sure         $myobj = $null     }  # After the loop, export the array to CSV $outarray | export-csv "somefile.csv"