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Variable / String Appends in Powershell

I'm in the process of building a PowerShell script which is making heavy use of ConvertTo-HTML to serve as the basis for a web-based reporting tool.

However, I've hit a brick wall with regard to how variables may be appended.

The script sometimes breaks out into a loop when multiple databases need to be interrogated. For the first database, the HTML is built for the result set as a variable with the last script action being "ConvertTo-HTML xxxxxx | Output-String".

For the second and subsequent databases, I simply want to append the output to the existing variable.

Any pointers greatly appreciated!

campbell1972Asked: 2017-03-28

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LVL 71

Chris DentPowerShell DeveloperCommented: 2017-03-28

ConvertTo-Html will create a standalone HTML document. Added information to that is tricky once it's created. However, that would be a poor way to go about things.

ConvertTo-Html has a Fragment parameter. This generates a table out of an object.

Typically this means you can build a complex document like this:

$body = '<h1>Title 1</h1>'
$body += $results1 | ConvertTo-Html -Fragment
$body += '<h1>Title 2</h1>
$body += $results2 | ConvertTo-Html -Fragment

$document = ConvertTo-Html -Body $body | Out-String

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You would often add a head (style information) at the same time. The point of the last step is only to create the wrapper document.

This will leave an empty table in the document, this can be problematic if you have particular styles in use. The Empty table can be removed like this:

$document = $document -replace '<table>\r?\n</table>'

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LVL 71

Chris DentPowerShell DeveloperCommented: 2017-03-28

Addendum, if the intent is to push everything into a single table, you need to merge everything before ConvertTo-Html is called. Appending information to existing HTML tables would be painful.