Creating multi-line email body in powershell - email

Question

I keep getting error when I am trying to implement multiple line email body. I am suspecting bad syntax. Can't find any example online. Any suggestions?
Error: Unexpected token 'EmployeeName"] to $AccountExpire"' in expression or statement.
$subject = "Email for $item["EmployeeName"]. Date expire $AccountExpire"
$body=#"
Name: $item["Employee"]
Class: Contractor
Depart: $item["Depart"]
Region: $item["Region"]
Manager: $item["Manager"]
New Date: $NewDate
"#
SendUpdateEmail($subject,$Body)

Answer 1

You need to escape those array index operations with a subexpression ($()):
$subject = "Email for $($item["EmployeeName"]). Date expire $AccountExpire"
Same goes for multi-line strings (or here-strings as they're formally called):
$body=#"
Name: $($item["Employee"])
Class: Contractor
# and so on...
"#
Personally, I'd go for a multi-line template and use the -f format operator to fill in the values:
$bodyTemplate=#'
Name: {0}
Class: Contractor
Depart: {1}
Region: {2}
Manager: {3}
New Date: {4}
'#
$body = $bodyTemplate -f $item["Employee"],$item["Depart"],$item["Region"],$item["Manager"],$NewDate
When using -f, you can also format different types of data, so if $NewDate is a [DateTime] object, you could control formatting for that inside the template, eg.:
#'
Date: {0:HH:mm:ss}
'# -f (Get-Date)
which would produce:
Date: 14:55:09
(assuming you did this a five to 3 in the afternoon)