Powershell variable scope from xml file

Question

If i run the following code, I get the expected result based on whether the file exists or not with complete output (ie. $filepath always equals "C:\test\test.txt"):

$filepath = "C:\test\test.txt"

If( Test-Path $filepath)
{
    Write-Host "File does exist: " $filepath
}
Else
{
    Write-Host "File does not exist: " $filepath
}

ie. $filepath is in scope within the if block

Why does this behaviour not seem to translate when reading the filepath from an external file? Here, the conditional always returns false and the output prints as though $fileLocation is empty.

testConfig.xml file:

<ConfigFile>
    <FileLocation>C:\test\test.txt</FileLocation>
</ConfigFile>

powershell code:

[xml]$config = Get-Content ".\testConfig.xml"

$fileLocation = $config.SelectNodes("//FileLocation")

If( Test-Path -LiteralPath $fileLocation)
{
    Write-Host "File does exist: " $fileLocation
}
Else
{
    Write-Host "File does not exist: " $fileLocation
}

Is this something to do with the variable scope? How can I get the same behaviour as the first codeblock when reading the filepath from an xml file?

Martin Brandl · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-26 14:44:24Z

2

SelectNodes returns a XmlNodeList, not a string. If you want to select only one Node, you should use SelectSingleNode instead. Also, if you pass the XmlNode returned by SelectSingleNode, it will pass FileLocation to the Test-Path cmdlet because the ToString() method of the XmlNode gets called and actually returns the name of the node. You do this with the InnerText property:

$node = config.SelectSingleNode("//FileLocation")
Test-Path $node.InnerText

answered Jul 26, 2015 at 14:44

Martin Brandl

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