Vista - Manipulating current directory as a variable

I feel extremely stupid for asking this:

How does one set a variable to the current directory and manipulate it? This
apparently can't be done with $test = pwd as on trying to manipulate it, e.g.
$test = $test + "\test" an error is received:

Method invocation failed because [System.Management.Automation.PathInfo]
doesn't contain a method n
amed 'op_Addition'.
At line:1 char:16
+ $test = $test + <<<< "\test"

Thanks in advance,

Ralish

Ralish wrote:
> How does one set a variable to the current directory and manipulate
> it? This apparently can't be done with $test = pwd as on trying to
> manipulate it, e.g. $test = $test + "\test" an error is received:
>
> Method invocation failed because
> [System.Management.Automation.PathInfo] doesn't contain a method n
> amed 'op_Addition'.
> At line:1 char:16
> + $test = $test + <<<< "\test"

Since pwd (alias for get-location) doesn't return a string, you can't
concatenate to it, but use this:

$test = (pwd).path
$test = $test + "\test"

Or just use the join-path cmdlet:

join-path (pwd) test

"Ralish" wrote:

> How does one set a variable to the current directory and manipulate it?

There are many cmdlets related to manipulating "path"
If you type the following you will see about half a dozen commands
PS> Get-Command -Noun Path

> This apparently can't be done with $test = pwd as on trying to manipulate it, e.g.
> $test = $test + "\test" an error is received:

What happening here is that, when you do "$test = pwd", "$test" variable
actually holds an object of type "System.Management.Automation.PathInfo" not
a text path one might expect. So you have to actually get the path string
from "pwd".(by the way, to see what methods and properties are avaiable for
"pwd" or ANY other objects, you can use "Get-Member".
Try out the following command and you will see a property named "Path" which
is the actually string holding the directory path of the current directory.
PS> pwd | gm)
PS> $test = (pwd).Path

In the above code, I have surrounded "pwd" with "()" and then retrieved the
object's "Path" value and stored it into "$test" variable.

> Method invocation failed because [System.Management.Automation.PathInfo]
> doesn't contain a method n
> amed 'op_Addition'.
> At line:1 char:16
> + $test = $test + <<<< "\test"

As you saw in "pwd | gm", object of type
"System.Management.Automation.PathInfo" does not override "+"(which is
represented by "op_Addition") operator so that is the reason.

So to be able to accomplish appending "\test" to $test variable, there are
couple of ways to do this(or more perhaps )

==============================
# This produces an errorenous path
[^_^]PS[5]>$test = (pwd).path
[^_^]PS[6]>$test += "\test"
[^_^]PS[7]>$test
C:\\test
==============================
# It is safer to use built-in "Join-Path" cmdlet
# The current directory is "C:\"
[^_^]PS[841]>(pwd).path
C:\
# Assign the string path to $test then join the path "c:\" with "test"
# One thing to note that, "Join-Path" actually disregards double "\"
# so the output of "$test" is "c:\test" instead of "c:\\test"
[^_^]PS[842]>$test = (pwd).path
[^_^]PS[843]>$test = Join-Path $test "\test"
[^_^]PS[844]>$test
C:\test
==============================
# Oneliner to do the same.
[^_^]PS[845]>$foo = Join-Path (pwd).path "test"
[^_^]PS[846]>$foo
C:\test
==============================


> I feel extremely stupid for asking this:

No, you shoudln't Everyone has to start somewhere

--
Sung M Kim

Please don''t bother me with spam...

there should be an automatic variable $PWD which is the result of
get-location (which is a pathinfo), so you can what you want via:

$pwd.path + "/test"

PS C:\Documents and Settings\jimtru\Desktop> $pwd.path + "/test"
C:\Documents and Settings\jimtru\Desktop/test

--
James Truher[MSFT]
Program Manager - Windows PowerShell
Microsoft Corporation
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, no confers rights.
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"Ralish" <Ralish@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:2108D6A6-D292-4EA5-BE42-668F1E1307C8@microsoft.com...
>I feel extremely stupid for asking this:
>
> How does one set a variable to the current directory and manipulate it?
> This
> apparently can't be done with $test = pwd as on trying to manipulate it,
> e.g.
> $test = $test + "\test" an error is received:
>
> Method invocation failed because [System.Management.Automation.PathInfo]
> doesn't contain a method n
> amed 'op_Addition'.
> At line:1 char:16
> + $test = $test + <<<< "\test"
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Ralish
>
>