Vista - how to get text string from description?

Just started to play with powershll and is using CTP2.

$a = get-help write-error
$b = $a.description

If I typed $b, I get
r information such as an id, object data, and suggested actions.

Cool. I then try $a.name + $b, I get
Why? I am expecting this:
r information such as an id, object data, and suggested actions.

What am I missing. Thank you.

You absolutely need that exact syntax?

How about:
$a|foreach-object{$_.name,$_.description}

The problem is that the addition operator can't be used for the
particular objects you're dealing with.

$a.gettype() doesn't return a string object.

I've not played with it enough, but there's a method to get a string out
of this, but even it doesn't work properly at first glance:

$a.name.tostring() + $b.tostring()

Maybe casting $a and $b to a string when creating them will help:

[string]$a=get-help write-error
etc.

Marco

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http://www.microsoft.com/mvp

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Blog:
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Thanks for your reply Marco. You do give me more ideas to try out. I found
out that $a.description is of type PSObject[], not string. So, if I use
"$a.name + $a.description[0].text", it gives me my expected result.
No. I am simply playing around to get used to powershell. This is what I
don't understand. If I say "$a | get-member -name description", I get

description NoteProperty System.Management.Automation.PSObject[]
description=System.Management.Automation.PSObject[]

in one of the output lines. It says it is type PSObject[] (powershell
object array?).

Ok. Then I try "$a.description.GetType()", I get

True True PSObject[] System.Array

which seems to comfirm that the "description" property is PSObject[] type.

Then I say "$b = $a.description", then "$b.GetType()", it says it is String
type? Why? And at this point, $b is a empty string. Why? Why do I have to
say [PSObject[]]$b = $a.description to make $b of type PSObject[]?

Thank you.

"DarrickIvy" <DarrickIvy@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:30B495F4-64EF-429D-9859-D382CF410615@xxxxxxI don't see that on my system:

38> $b.GetType()

IsPublic IsSerial Name BaseType
-------- -------- ---- --------
True True PSObject[] System.Array

Is it possible that you have turned $b into a variable of type string? For
instance, if you execute a statement like this:

[string]$b = ...

Then $b will only contain a string and PowerShell will try real hard to
convert everything to a string to fit into that variable. Try you
experiment with a different/new variable and see if you get the same
results:

--
Keith