53-concatenation.yml

name: 53 - Concatenation

on:
  workflow_dispatch:

# Top level and job level environment variables cannot be concatenated.
# Previously it was possible to  use set-env to achieve a similar result but this has been removed for security reasons.
# An alternative is to use environment files to achieve the same result.
# ref: https://docs.github.com/en/actions/reference/workflow-commands-for-github-actions#environment-files

env:
  argument1: argument1
  argument2: argument2
  argument3: $argument1$argument2 # This won't work as expected
  # Note that you can't use arg3: ${{argument1}}${{argument2}} to join these variables

jobs:
  run:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Concatenate values to environment file
        run: |
          echo "joined=${{env.argument1}}${{env.argument2}}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
      - name: Check environment variable is available
        run: |
          echo "${{ env.joined }}"  # Should return argument1argument2
      - name: Check argument 3 value
        run: |
          echo "${{env.argument3}}" # Will return the string $argument1$argument2 instead of the concatenated value