Msbuild - nesting a property inside a property

Question

I currently have something like this I would like to display the output of the property helloworld by joining the value of properties value1 and value2. I tried doing $(value1$(value2)) but that doesnt work any suggestions ?

<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
    <PropertyGroup>
        <value1>hello</value1>
        <value2>world</value2>
        <helloworld>This works</helloworld>
    </PropertyGroup>

    <Target Name="Build">
    <Message Text = "----Message is: $(value1$(value2))"></Message>
    </Target>

</Project>

I also tried this

<m>$([System.String]::Concat($(value1), $(value2)))</m>

and the output I get from this

<Message Text = "----Message is: $(m)"></Message>

The output is "HelloWorld" I wanted it to be "This works". Any suggestions ?

Answer 1

Hello SilverChips ,

Thank you for taking time to post this issue in Microsoft Q&A forum.

Please refer to this document: CreateProperty task and try following codes:

<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">  
 <PropertyGroup>  
 <value1>hello</value1>  
 <value2>world</value2>  
 </PropertyGroup>  

 <Target Name="Build">  
 <CreateProperty  
            Value="This work">  
 <Output  
                TaskParameter="Value"  
                PropertyName="$(value1)$(value2)" />  
 </CreateProperty>  
 <Message Importance="high" Text="$(helloworld)"></Message>  
 </Target>  

</Project>  

• Update1:

After testing more, I may misunderstand your requirements. So if you'd like to use value1 and value2 to output value1 value2, then you may need to refer to this document: Task writing and write your own task.

Sincerely,
Tianyu

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