Search Variable for String then Run Conditional Statement in PowerShell

Quick and simple I thought but I appear to be struggling with the conditional statement. Here is the script:

cmd /c c:\users\PERSON\desktop\merge.bat

$c = get-content c:\replmerg.log

if ($c -contains ("ERROR"))
{
    $a = new-object -comobject wscript.shell
 开发者_如何学运维   $b = $a.popup(“ERROR - Database Merge“,0,”Please Contact Support”,1)
}

else
{
    $a = new-object -comobject wscript.shell
    $b = $a.popup(“SUCCESS - Database Merge“,0,”Good Job!”,1)
}

Right now what happens is that the script runs and just skips to the Success message. I can confirm that simply running the 'get-content' command in powershell will on its own produce a variable that I can then call and show the content of the log file. My script however does not appear as though it is actually checking the $c variable for the word and then popping the error message as intended. What am I missing here?

Christian's answer is correct. You could also use the -match operator. For example:

if ((Get-Content c:\replmerg.log) -match "ERROR")
{
    'do error stuff'
}
else
{
    'do success stuff'
}

You can use -cmatch if you want a case sensitive comparison.

You actually don't need to use Get-Content at all. Select-String can take a -path parameter. I created two very simple text files, one which has the word ERROR and one which does not

PS C:\> cat .\noerror.txt
not in here
PS C:\> cat .\haserror.txt
ERROR in here
this has ERROR in here
PS C:\> if ( Select-String  -Path .\noerror.txt -Pattern ERROR) {"Has Error"}
PS C:\> if ( Select-String  -Path .\haserror.txt -Pattern ERROR) {"Has Error"}
Has Error
PS C:\>

The one thing that might trip you up is that the -pattern actually takes a regular expression, so be careful of what you use for your pattern. THis will find ERROR anywhere in the log file, even if there are multiple instances, like in my "haserror.txt" file.

The -contains operator is used for looking for an exact match in a list (or array). As the other answers indicate, you should use -match, -like, or -eq to compare strings.

You can use the -quiet switch of select-string if you just wnat to test for the presence of a string in a file.

select-string -path c:\replmerg.log -pattern "ERROR" -casesensetive -quiet

Will return $true if the string is found in the file, and $false if it is not.

contain operator test only an identical value (not part of a value).

You can try this

$c = get-content c:\replmerg.log | select-string "ERROR" -casesensitive

if ($c.length -gt 0)