Output not displayed when assigning the return value of a function to a variable

Question

If I have a very simple script that contains a function that just does the following:

function saySomething() {
   Write-Output "Saying someting..."
}

If I call this function from the console the output is displayed. If I, however, do the following:

$something = saySomething

Then no output is displayed. Obviously my working example is much more complicated than this, but in short, how do I display the output within a function if that function is used to set a variable?

Just write out the variable after you set it. any reason for not doing that? — Musaab Al-Okaidi
– Musaab Al-Okaidi, Commented Oct 1, 2013 at 14:45
@MusaabAl-Okaidi the variable is actually a complex object. It's a slow running function and I want to display a certain status as its building out the object. — nullByteMe
– nullByteMe, Commented Oct 1, 2013 at 14:46
Have you experimented with Tee-Object? This will allow you to output to the console and a file at the same time, but if you're not outputting simple text then I guess this wouldn't work for you as you'd need to read the object back to the variable right? — Musaab Al-Okaidi
– Musaab Al-Okaidi, Commented Oct 1, 2013 at 14:51
just realized that Tee-Object can output to a variable so see my answer below. — Musaab Al-Okaidi
– Musaab Al-Okaidi, Commented Oct 1, 2013 at 14:54
@inquisitor - If you want to display a status, have a look at the Write-Progress cmdlet. If your function both returns the thing it's building and the status, the variable you assign the result to will have status messages that might not be useful. — Jason Shirk
– Jason Shirk, Commented Oct 1, 2013 at 23:14

Musaab Al-Okaidi · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-01 14:54:32Z

3

Try the following:

saySomething | Tee-Object -Variable something

This should work exactly as you want.

answered Oct 1, 2013 at 14:54

Musaab Al-Okaidi

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