How to Parse .ini File into PowerShell Variable(s) - powershell

Question

I have the following .ini file (named metrics.ini) containing a single record, but it may have more records added to it in the future:
$DatabaseConnection_STR=MYSERVER\MYINSTANCE
I need to parse this file into a PowerShell variable. I can parse the string with the following, but I am at a loss for creating the new $DatabaseConnection_STR variable (based on what was parsed from the .ini file). I don't want to hardcode $DatabaseConnection_STR in my script--I would rather let the script figure it out so that is can handle additional variables in the future.
# This code assumes that no blank lines are in the file--a blank line will cause an early termination of the read loop
########################################
#
# Confirm that the file exists on disk
#
########################################
$IniFile_NME="C:\temp\metrics.ini"
dir $IniFile_NME
########################################
#
# Parse the file
#
########################################
$InputFile = [System.IO.File]::OpenText("$IniFile_NME")
while($InputRecord = $InputFile.ReadLine())
{
# Display the current record
write-host "`$InputRecord=$InputRecord"
write-host ""
# Determine the position of the equal sign (=)
$Pos = $InputRecord.IndexOf('=')
write-host "`$Pos=$Pos"
# Determine the length of the record
$Len = $InputRecord.Length
write-host "`$Len=$Len"
# Parse the record
$Variable_NME = $InputRecord.Substring(0, $Pos)
$VariableValue_STR = $InputRecord.Substring($Pos + 1, $Len -$Pos -1)
write-host "`$Variable_NME=$Variable_NME"
write-host "`$VariableValue_STR=$VariableValue_STR"
# Create a new variable based on the parsed information--**the next line fails**
`$Variable_NME=$VariableValue_STR
}
$InputFile.Close()
Any ideas?

Answer 1

It's probably easier and more concise to use the split command. You could also store your configuration values in a hash table:
$config = #{}
Get-Content $IniFile_NME | foreach {
$line = $_.split("=")
$config.($line[0]) = $line[1]
}
You could still use the same method of creating variables if don't want a hash table, but using Powershell's reading, looping, and splitting will make it easier.

Answer 2

This works. It turns out that the New-Variable command does not use a dollar sign ($) with its "-name" parameter; so, I had to parse that out. See below.
# This code assumes that no blank lines are in the file--a blank line will cause an early termination of the read loop
########################################
#
# Confirm that the file exists on disk
#
########################################
$IniFile_NME="C:\temp\metrics.ini"
dir $IniFile_NME
########################################
#
# Parse the file
#
########################################
$InputFile = [System.IO.File]::OpenText("$IniFile_NME")
while($InputRecord = $InputFile.ReadLine())
{
# Display the current record
write-host "`$InputRecord=$InputRecord"
write-host ""
# Determine the position of the equal sign (=)
$Pos = $InputRecord.IndexOf('=')
write-host "`$Pos=$Pos"
# Determine the length of the record
$Len = $InputRecord.Length
write-host "`$Len=$Len"
# Parse the record
$Variable_NME = $InputRecord.Substring(1, $Pos -1)
$VariableValue_STR = $InputRecord.Substring($Pos + 1, $Len -$Pos -1)
write-host "`$Variable_NME=$Variable_NME"
write-host "`$VariableValue_STR=$VariableValue_STR"
# Create a new variable based on the parsed information
new-variable -name $Variable_NME -value $VariableValue_STR
get-variable -name $Variable_NME
}
$InputFile.Close()