Using Out-File to have a date variable within the name for the file

Question

I am trying to use Out-File to have a date variable within the name for the file. But, getting an exception as below

$EndDate = get-date -UFormat "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"
Out-File -FilePath "C:\output\$host-$EndDate.json

Out-File : The given path's format is not supported.
At E:\sample.ps1:442 char:69
+ ... MaxValue) | Out-File -FilePath "E:\output\$serverHostName ...
+                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : OpenError: (:) [Out-File], NotSupportedException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : FileOpenFailure,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.OutFileCommand

Answer 1

Instead of

Out-File -FilePath "C:\output\$host-$EndDate.json"

Make use of the format (-f) operator:

$EndDate = get-date -UFormat "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"
$myFileName = 'C:\output\{0}-{1}.json' -f $host, ($EndDate.ToString() -replace ':','')  -replace '\s','' 
Out-File -filepath $myFileName

Also, you may need to use the New-Item command instead of Out-File, if your directory doesn't already exist. Your error seems to indicate that the directory may not be available when creating the file.

New-Item -path $myFileName -Force 

As Bill Stewart pointed out, $host is a reserved word, so be careful using it.