PowerShell v3 Insert Binary Data to ASCII File

I work with large text files on a regular basis. In this case, I needed to generate a header for each file, but, add a small snippet of binary data. The hex characters,  0x0D,0x0A,0x0C, are common control characters. In this case, I needed to add a two line text string, the control characters, then, the remaining content of an original file. My first attempts to add binary data did not fare well, so, I went back to one of my favorite links:

PowerShell Byte Array And Hex Functions

For whatever reason I had never realized the Add-Content cmdlet existed, so, I dug into that one, and, came up with this approach. In the example below I have highlighted the two key lines in yellow.

${C:DataDocuments1.txt} += file 1 content

${C:DataDocuments2.txt} +=

$content = Get-Content -Path $PWD1.txt

$header = file 2 header

[Byte[]] $binaryarray =@(0x0D,0x0A,0x0C);

Add-Content -Path "$pwd2.txt" -Value $header -Encoding Ascii

Add-Content -Path "$pwd2.txt" -Value $binaryarray -Encoding Byte

Add-Content -Path "$pwd2.txt" -Value $content

ii C:DataDocuments2.txt

The real trick here is to use a [Byte[]] array to store your binary string, then, when using Add-Content, be sure to specify -Encoding Byte . 

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