Learn Windows PowerShell in a Month of Lunches

Chapter 15. Variables: a place to store your stuff

I’ve already mentioned that PowerShell contains a scripting language, and in a few more chapters we’re going to start playing with it. Once you start scripting, however, you tend to start needing variables, so we’ll get those out of the way in this chapter. Variables can be used in a lot of places other than long, complex scripts, so I’ll also show you some practical ways in which you can utilize them.

15.1. Introduction to variables

A simple way to think of a variable is as a box in the computer’s memory that has a name. You can put whatever you want into the box: a single computer name, a collection of services, an XML document, or whatever you like. You access the box by using its name, ...