This is the built-in help made by Microsoft for the command 'Set-Variable', in PowerShell version 3 - as retrieved from
Windows version 'Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Standard' PowerShell help files on 2016-06-23.
For PowerShell version 3 and up, where you have Update-Help, this command was run just before creating the web pages from the help files.
Sets the value of a variable. Creates the variable if one with the requested name does not exist.
Set-Variable [-Name] <String[]> [[-Value] <Object>] [-Description <String>] [-Exclude <String[]>] [-Force] [-Include <String[]>] [-Option
<ScopedItemOptions>] [-PassThru] [-Scope <String>] [-Visibility <SessionStateEntryVisibility>] [-Confirm] [-WhatIf] [<CommonParameters>]
The Set-Variable cmdlet assigns a value to a specified variable or changes the current value. If the variable does not exist, the cmdlet
creates it.
<
Online Version: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=113401
Clear-Variable
Get-Variable
New-Variable
Remove-Variable
<
-------------------------- EXAMPLE 1 --------------------------
PS C:\>set-variable -name desc -value "A description"
PS C:\>get-variable -name desc
These commands set the value of the "desc" variable to "A description", and then get the value of the variable.
-------------------------- EXAMPLE 2 --------------------------
PS C:\>set-variable -name processes -value (Get-Process) -option constant -scope global -description "All processes" -passthru | format-list
-property *
This command creates a global, read-only variable that contains all processes on the system, and then it displays all properties of the
variable.
The command uses the Set-Variable cmdlet to create the variable. It uses the PassThru parameter to create an object representing the new
variable, and it uses the pipeline operator (|) to pass the object to the Format-List cmdlet. It uses the Property parameter of Format-List
with a value of all (*) to display all properties of the newly created variable.
The value, "(Get-Process)", is enclosed in parentheses to ensure that it is executed before being stored in the variable. Otherwise, the
variable contains the words "Get-Process".
-------------------------- EXAMPLE 3 --------------------------
PS C:\># set-variable -name counter -visibility private
PS C:\>new-variable -name counter -visibility public -value 26
PS C:\>$counter
26
PS C:\>get-variable c*
Name Value
---- -----
Culture en-US
ConsoleFileName
ConfirmPreference High
CommandLineParameters {}
Counter 26
PS C:\>set-variable -name counter -visibility private
PS C:\>get-variable c*
Name Value
---- -----
Culture en-US
ConsoleFileName
ConfirmPreference High
CommandLineParameters {}
PS C:\>$counter
"Cannot access the variable '$counter' because it is a private variable"
PS C:\>.\use-counter.ps1
Commands completed successfully.
This command shows how to change the visibility of a variable to "Private". This variable can be read and changed by scripts with the required
permissions, but it is not visible to the user.
The sample output shows the difference in the behavior of public and private variables.