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Kelemvor's avatar
Kelemvor
Icon for Expert rankExpert
2 years ago

Powershell: Expanding a variable inside single quotes to make an API call

Hi, I’m trying to use Powershell to make an API call and pass in the SDT start/end time as a variable.  However, because the call has to be within single quotes, I can’t get it to expand the variabl...
api
powershell
  • Dave_Lee's avatar
    Dave_Lee
    2 years ago

    It might be easier to build up the body of your API call in a variable and then pass it in.  So something like this:

    $body = '{"sdtType":1,"type":"DeviceSDT","deviceId":13771,"startDateTime":’ + $now + ‘,"endDateTime":’ + $later + ‘}'

    Then use the $body variable in your API call.

    Dave

Mike_Moniz's avatar
Mike_Moniz
Icon for Professor rankProfessor
2 years ago

Dave’s answer is still the best and suggested method. But just to throw this out, you can put single and double quotes in powershell strings. You will need to escape them. Meaning you use the back tick (`) mark (other languages use backslash (\) but powershell is different). So for example you can use:

"{`"startDateTime`":$now,`"endDateTime`":$later}"

It’s good for short strings or needing to compact one-liners, but can get messy if too long. Many cases your better off using a variable like above.