Writing new lines to a text file in PowerShell

Question

I'm creating an error log file. This is my current code:

Add-Content -path $logpath $((get-date).tostring() + " Error " + $keyPath `
   + $value + " key " + $key +" expected: " + $policyValue `
   + "`n local value is: " +$localValue

When I Get-Content on the log file, it displays correctly, with the new line before "local value."

However, when I open the log file in Notepad, it displays everything on a single line. How can I cause it to insert a new line into the text file as well?

Ansgar Wiechers · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-06T11:00:03.657

68

`n is a line feed character. Notepad (prior to Windows 10) expects linebreaks to be encoded as `r`n (carriage return + line feed, CR-LF). Open the file in some useful editor (SciTE, Notepad++, UltraEdit-32, Vim, ...) and convert the linebreaks to CR-LF. Or use PowerShell:

(Get-Content $logpath | Out-String) -replace "`n", "`r`n" | Out-File $logpath

edited Nov 06 '18 at 11:00

answered Jul 02 '13 at 19:39

Ansgar Wiechers

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If I changed the code to include the carraige return before the linefeed, ould notepad show the file correctly? – NewPowerSheller Jul 02 '13 at 19:43
If you create the file anew: yes, it should show a newly created file correctly then. – Ansgar Wiechers Jul 02 '13 at 19:44
I'm using PowerShell v4 (`$PSVersionTable.PSVersion`) and using Both ```r`n creates two blank lines when using `r`n` | Out-File -Encode Ascii` so I switched to only ```r` which correctly creates a single line space. – user4317867 Jun 13 '16 at 00:54
Thanks for the answer. Does the job well. Cheers. – Anjana Silva Oct 31 '19 at 09:29

score 21 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 02 '13 at 20:34

21

You can use the Environment class's static NewLine property to get the proper newline:

$errorMsg =  "{0} Error {1}{2} key {3} expected: {4}{5} local value is: {6}" -f `
               (Get-Date),$keyPath,$value,$key,$policyValue,([Environment]::NewLine),$localValue
Add-Content -Path $logpath $errorMsg

answered Jul 02 '13 at 20:34

Aaron Jensen

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this is what i ended up using – Master Azazel Nov 22 '18 at 16:32

score 19 · Answer 3 · edited May 29 '17 at 17:24

19

It's also possible to assign newline and carriage return to variables and then append them to texts inside PowerShell scripts:

$OFS = "`r`n"
$msg = "This is First Line" + $OFS + "This is Second Line" + $OFS
Write-Host $msg

edited May 29 '17 at 17:24

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jan 28 '15 at 05:04

rchacko

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score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 26 '17 at 14:15

4

Try this;

Add-Content -path $logpath @"
$((get-date).tostring()) Error $keyPath $value
key $key expected: $policyValue
local value is:  $localValue
"@

answered Jul 26 '17 at 14:15

Steztric

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The @ symbol changes how the text inside of the "'s are read. With the @'s the text is read 'as is'. Which means no additional processing is done to the text, and the newlines characters are included too. – TinyRacoon Jan 29 '19 at 11:23

Heph · Answer 5 · 2021-04-03T23:28:01.827

2

Values were not working for me when using Pipe command. I Created an additional Add-Content with -Value of nothing "" followed by the original Get | Add that I was trying to use.

$newfile = "C:\FilePath\Newfile.txt" 
$oldfile = "C:\FilePath\Oldfile.txt"

Add-Content -Path "$newfile" -value ""
Get-Content -Path "$oldfile | Add-Content -Path "$newfile"

edited Apr 03 '21 at 23:28

answered Apr 03 '21 at 22:57

Heph

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score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 10 '22 at 12:38

0

"Line-1$([Environment]::NewLine)`"Line-2`"$([Environment]::NewLine)Line-3"| out-File c:\Temp\abc.txt

answered Nov 10 '22 at 12:38

Hemendr

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Writing new lines to a text file in PowerShell

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