What does the “$” symbol do in Powershell?

Question

I've seen the $ symbol used in PowerShell with every variable. Is there any specific use of this symbol?

Answer 1

The dollar symbol in PowerShell variable is used to set/evaluate the value of that variable.

$Variable1 = hello

Above expression is to define a vriable by setting it a value hello. Here the variable name is Variable1, but with $ it is setting the Variable1 a value hello.

There are cmdlets to set variables where $ is not used.

Set-Variable -Name Variable2 -Value HelloWorld

And get cmdlet for the same.

Get-Variable -Name Variable2

PS: Above explanation is only for variables.