Get-Content

Syntax

Get-Content
   [-ReadCount <Int64>]
   [-TotalCount <Int64>]
   [-Tail <Int32>]
   [-Path] <String[]>
   [-Filter <String>]
   [-Include <String[]>]
   [-Exclude <String[]>]
   [-Force]
   [-Credential <PSCredential>]
   [-Delimiter <String>]
   [-Wait]
   [-Raw]
   [-Encoding <Encoding>]
   [-AsByteStream]
   [-Stream <String>]
   [<CommonParameters>]

Get-Content
   [-ReadCount <Int64>]
   [-TotalCount <Int64>]
   [-Tail <Int32>]
   -LiteralPath <String[]>
   [-Filter <String>]
   [-Include <String[]>]
   [-Exclude <String[]>]
   [-Force]
   [-Credential <PSCredential>]
   [-Delimiter <String>]
   [-Wait]
   [-Raw]
   [-Encoding <Encoding>]
   [-AsByteStream]
   [-Stream <String>]
   [<CommonParameters>]

Description

The Get-Content cmdlet gets the content of the item at the location specified by the path, such as the text in a file or the content of a function. For files, the content is read one line at a time and returns a collection of objects, each representing a line of content.

Beginning in PowerShell 3.0, Get-Content can also get a specified number of lines from the beginning or end of an item.

Examples

Example 1: Get the content of a text file

This example gets the content of a file in the current directory. The LineNumbers.txt file has 100 lines in the format, This is Line X and is used in several examples.

1..100 | ForEach-Object { Add-Content -Path .\LineNumbers.txt -Value "This is line $_." }
Get-Content -Path .\LineNumbers.txt

This is Line 1
This is Line 2
...
This is line 99.
This is line 100.

The array values 1-100 are sent down the pipeline to the ForEach-Object cmdlet. ForEach-Object uses a script block with the Add-Content cmdlet to create the LineNumbers.txt file. The variable $_ represents the array values as each object is sent down the pipeline. The Get-Content cmdlet uses the Path parameter to specify the LineNumbers.txt file and displays the content in the PowerShell console.

Example 2: Limit the number of lines Get-Content returns

This command gets the first five lines of a file. The TotalCount parameter gets the first five lines of content. This example uses the LineNumbers.txt referenced in Example 1.

Get-Content -Path .\LineNumbers.txt -TotalCount 5

This is Line 1
This is Line 2
This is Line 3
This is Line 4
This is Line 5

Example 3: Get a specific line of content from a text file

This command gets a specific number of lines from a file and then displays only the last line of that content. The TotalCount parameter gets the first 25 lines of content. This example uses the LineNumbers.txt file referenced in Example 1.

(Get-Content -Path .\LineNumbers.txt -TotalCount 25)[-1]

This is Line 25

The Get-Content command is wrapped in parentheses so that the command completes before going to the next step. Get-Contentreturns an array of lines, this allows you to add the index notation after the parenthesis to retrieve a specific line number. In this case, the [-1] index specifies the last index in the returned array of 25 retrieved lines.

Example 4: Get the last line of a text file

This command gets the last line of content from a file. This example uses the LineNumbers.txt file that was created in Example 1.

Get-Item -Path .\LineNumbers.txt | Get-Content -Tail 1

This is Line 100

This example uses the Get-Item cmdlet to demonstrate that you can pipe files to Get-Content. The Tail parameter gets the last line of the file. This method is faster than retrieving all the lines in a variable and using the [-1] index notation.

Example 5: Get the content of an alternate data stream

This example describes how to use the Stream parameter to get the content of an alternate data stream for files stored on a Windows NTFS volume. In this example, the Set-Content cmdlet is used to create sample content in a file named Stream.txt.

Set-Content -Path .\Stream.txt -Value 'This is the content of the Stream.txt file'
# Specify a wildcard to the Stream parameter to display all streams of the recently created file.
Get-Item -Path .\Stream.txt -Stream *

PSPath        : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Test\Stream.txt::$DATA
PSParentPath  : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Test
PSChildName   : Stream.txt::$DATA
PSDrive       : C
PSProvider    : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem
PSIsContainer : False
FileName      : C:\Test\Stream.txt
Stream        : :$DATA
Length        : 44

# Retrieve the content of the primary stream.
# Note the single quotes to prevent variable substitution.
Get-Content -Path .\Stream.txt -Stream ':$DATA'

This is the content of the Stream.txt file

# Alternative way to get the same content.
Get-Content -Path .\Stream.txt -Stream ""
# The primary stream doesn't need to be specified to get the primary stream of the file.
# This gets the same data as the prior two examples.
Get-Content -Path .\Stream.txt

This is the content of the Stream.txt file

# Use the Stream parameter of Add-Content to create a new Stream containing sample content.
$addContentSplat = @{
    Path = '.\Stream.txt'
    Stream = 'NewStream'
    Value = 'Added a stream named NewStream to Stream.txt'
}
Add-Content @addContentSplat

# Use Get-Item to verify the stream was created.
Get-Item -Path .\Stream.txt -Stream *

PSPath        : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Test\Stream.txt::$DATA
PSParentPath  : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Test
PSChildName   : Stream.txt::$DATA
PSDrive       : C
PSProvider    : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem
PSIsContainer : False
FileName      : C:\Test\Stream.txt
Stream        : :$DATA
Length        : 44

PSPath        : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Test\Stream.txt:NewStream
PSParentPath  : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Test
PSChildName   : Stream.txt:NewStream
PSDrive       : C
PSProvider    : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem
PSIsContainer : False
FileName      : C:\Test\Stream.txt
Stream        : NewStream
Length        : 46

# Retrieve the content of your newly created Stream.
Get-Content -Path .\Stream.txt -Stream NewStream

Added a stream named NewStream to Stream.txt

The Stream parameter is a dynamic parameter of the FileSystem provider. By default Get-Content only retrieves data from the default, or :$DATA stream. Streams can be used to store hidden data such as attributes, security settings, or other data. They can also be stored on directories without being child items.

Example 6: Get raw content

The commands in this example get the contents of a file as one string, instead of an array of strings. By default, without the Raw dynamic parameter, content is returned as an array of newline-delimited strings. This example uses the LineNumbers.txt file referenced in Example 1.

$raw = Get-Content -Path .\LineNumbers.txt -Raw
$lines = Get-Content -Path .\LineNumbers.txt
Write-Host "Raw contains $($raw.Count) lines."
Write-Host "Lines contains $($lines.Count) lines."

Raw contains 1 lines.
Lines contains 100 lines.

Example 7: Use Filters with Get-Content

You can specify a filter to the Get-Content cmdlet. When using filters to qualify the Path parameter, you need to include a trailing asterisk (*) to indicate the contents of the path.

The following command gets the content of all *.log files in the C:\Temp directory.

Get-Content -Path C:\Temp\* -Filter *.log

Example 8: Get file contents as a byte array

This example demonstrates how to get the contents of a file as a [byte[]] as a single object.

$byteArray = Get-Content -Path C:\temp\test.txt -AsByteStream -Raw
Get-Member -InputObject $bytearray

TypeName: System.Byte[]

Name           MemberType            Definition
----           ----------            ----------
Count          AliasProperty         Count = Length
Add            Method                int IList.Add(System.Object value)

The first command uses the AsByteStream parameter to get the stream of bytes from the file. The Raw parameter ensures that the bytes are returned as a [System.Byte[]]. If the Raw parameter was absent, the return value is a stream of bytes, which is interpreted by PowerShell as [System.Object[]].

Parameters

-AsByteStream

-Credential

-Delimiter

-Encoding

-Exclude

-Filter

-Force

-Include

-LiteralPath

-Path

-Raw

-ReadCount

-Stream

-Tail

-TotalCount

-Wait

Inputs

Int64

You can pipe the read count or total count to this cmdlet.

String[]

You can pipe paths to this cmdlet.

PSCredential

You can pipe credentials to this cmdlet.

Outputs

Byte

When you use the AsByteStream parameter, this cmdlet returns the content as bytes.

String

By default, this cmdlet returns the content as an array of strings, one per line. When you use the Raw parameter, it returns a single string containing every line in the file.

Notes

PowerShell includes the following aliases for Get-Content:

• All platforms:
  • gc
  • type
• Windows:
  • cat

The Get-Content cmdlet is designed to work with the data exposed by any provider. To get the providers in your session, use the Get-PSProvider cmdlet. For more information, see about_Providers.

Related Links

• about_Automatic_Variables
• about_Providers
• Add-Content
• Clear-Content
• ForEach-Object
• Get-PSProvider
• Set-Content