--- title: "Place PowerShell Variables in Strings: Quick Tips" description: "Learn to handle PowerShell variables in strings effectively. Account for null values like a pro." canonical: "https://adamtheautomator.com/powershell-variable-in-strings/" --- # Place PowerShell Variables in Strings: Quick Tips > Learn to handle PowerShell variables in strings effectively. Account for null values like a pro. Source: https://adamtheautomator.com/powershell-variable-in-strings/ --- ATA Learning Tap to hide [ ATA Learning ](/) * [Home](/) * [Tutorials](/tutorials/) * [Instructors](/author/) * [Advertising](/advertising/) * [Recommended Resources](/resources/) * [About Adam](/about-adam/) Search for: * [](https://twitter.com/adbertram) * [](https://github.com/Adam-the-Automator) * [](https://www.linkedin.com/company/adam-the-automator-llc) * [](/feed/) ![Place PowerShell Variables in Strings: Quick Tips](https://adamtheautomator.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/5d238ae5c824b514689ea601.jpg) # Place PowerShell Variables in Strings: Quick Tips [![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/d0b9d42e21e5622713f8b693aa5c0f9244d5f7dd200ed29b8398f52dee5de337?s=192&d=mm&r=g)Adam Bertram](https://adamtheautomator.com/author/adam-bertram/)1 July 20191 min. read Categories: [IT Ops](/category/it-ops/) Tags:[PowerShell](/tag/powershell/) When you need to show a PowerShell variable in a string, you typically just add the variable along with some other text inside of a string with double-quotes as shown below ![PowerShell variable in string](https://adamtheautomator.com/content/images/2019/07/quick-tip-surrounding-variables-with-brackets-in-strings---2016-02-25_11-44-44.png) PowerShell variable in string **_Related: [Back to Basics: PowerShell Strings](https://adamtheautomator.com/powershell-strings/)_** Putting a variable inside of a double-quoted string is called [variable expansion](https://devblogs.microsoft.com/powershell/variable-expansion-in-strings-and-here-strings/). This method of variable insertion is fine if the variable in question has a value. But what if the string is part of a larger script and you have various conditions that might set `$serverName`. This means that the variable might not contain any value at all. At that point, your message just looks messed up. You can see below if you just insert the PowerShell variable inside of the string and then return the value, nothing is shown. You have no way to know if that value even contained a variable reference at all! ![No variable expansion in verbose message](https://adamtheautomator.com/content/images/2019/07/quick-tip-surrounding-variables-with-brackets-in-strings---2016-02-25_11-46-53.png) No variable expansion in verbose message The solution? Make it a habit of enclosing your variables inside of strings with simple brackets. ![Easy inspection of no variable value](https://adamtheautomator.com/content/images/2019/07/quick-tip-surrounding-variables-with-brackets-in-strings---2016-02-25_11-48-57.png) Easy inspection of no variable value You can now clearly see that a variable should have been there but was not. It’s a simple trick but it’s saved me so much troubleshooting time over the years. Now, it’s habit to enclose variables in brackets. In fact, I have a snippet that I use to simply type `varb` and it will automatically do it for me. 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