Reading file content (Get-Content) in PowerShell - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

💻 Command Output

intermediate

What is the output of this PowerShell command?

Given a file named example.txt containing the lines:

Hello
World

What will be the output of this command?

Get-Content example.txt

PowerShell

Get-Content example.txt

A Error: File not found

B Hello World

C System.Object[]

D Hello`nWorld

💡 Hint

Get-Content reads each line as a separate string and outputs them line by line.

Get-Content outputs each line as a separate string, so the output will be two lines: 'Hello' and 'World'.

💻 Command Output

intermediate

What does this command output when reading a file with empty lines?

Assume data.txt contains:

Line1



Line3

What is the output of:

Get-Content data.txt

PowerShell

Get-Content data.txt

A Line1`n`nLine3

B Line1`nLine3

C Line1 Line3

D Error: Empty lines not allowed

💡 Hint

Get-Content preserves empty lines as empty strings in the output.

Empty lines in the file are read as empty strings, so the output includes a blank line between Line1 and Line3.

📝 Syntax

advanced

Which command correctly reads the first 3 lines of a file?

You want to read only the first 3 lines of log.txt. Which command does this correctly?

A Get-Content log.txt -First 3

B Get-Content log.txt | Select-Object -First 3

C Get-Content log.txt -TotalCount 3

D Get-Content log.txt | Where-Object { $_ -le 3 }

💡 Hint

Look for the parameter that limits the number of lines read directly.

The -TotalCount parameter tells Get-Content to read only the specified number of lines from the start.

🔧 Debug

advanced

Why does this command fail with an error?

You run:

Get-Content -Path

and get an error. Why?

PowerShell

Get-Content -Path

A Because the -Path parameter requires a value specifying the file path.

B Because Get-Content does not have a -Path parameter.

C Because the file is empty.

D Because the command needs -TotalCount parameter.

💡 Hint

Check if all required parameters have values.

The -Path parameter needs a file path value; omitting it causes an error.

🚀 Application

expert

How to read a file and output only lines containing 'error' (case-insensitive)?

You want to read server.log and output only lines that contain the word 'error', ignoring case. Which command achieves this?

A Get-Content server.log | Select-String 'error' -CaseSensitive

B Get-Content server.log | Select-String 'error' -SimpleMatch

C Get-Content server.log | Where-Object { $_ -imatch 'error' }

D Get-Content server.log | Where-Object { $_ -match 'error' }

💡 Hint

Look for the operator that matches text ignoring case.

The '-imatch' operator performs a case-insensitive regex match, filtering lines containing 'error' regardless of case.