title: Store string variable in text file
body: <p>I want to create a (blank) file, and optionally store a text message in it. This is my code for doing so:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$null = new-item "$filename" -type file
  write-output ("Message: &lt;&lt;$message&gt;&gt;")
  if ( -not ($message= "")) {
      Add-Content "$filename" "Message: &lt;$message&gt;"
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The 1st line creates the file. This works.
  The 2nd line visually verifies that I do in fact supply a string (say, the proverbial "hello world").
  The 3rd line evaluates to <code>$true</code> and does execute its nested block.
  But the 4th line stores a message saying: <code>Message: &lt;&gt;</code>.</p>
  
  <p>I can't figure out the proper syntax for passing the <em>actual value</em> from <code>$message</code>. Help?</p>