PS .Contains() method does not work on Get-Content return object

November 5, 2021

I tried to use the .Contains() method to check if a file contains a certain string:

# $file content: 123
$content = Get-Content -Path $file

$content.Contains("1") # Is always false, why?
"$content".Contains("1") # Works

Why are the " required so that the .Contains method works?

$content | Get-Member


   TypeName: System.String

Name             MemberType            Definition                                                                                       
----             ----------            ----------                                                                                       
(...)
Contains         Method                bool Contains(string value)

>Solution :

As commented, using Get-Content returns an array of lines.
By quoting that result "$content" PowerShell merges these single lines together into a single string and then the String’s method .Contains() works as expected.

If you add switch -Raw to the Get-Content statement, the result is a single multiline string on which the .Contains() method works.