What is the difference between $a = $(Read-Host) and $a = (Read-Host)?

Question

I have to review some scripts what my Ex-Colleague left behind and I am very curious why he is using $a = $(Read-Host -Prompt \"Write something\") in the Parame

Answer 1

$() is for evaluating subexpressions in strings. It does nothing here.

You don't need () around read-host either, you can simply use $a = Read-Host -Prompt 'your input here'

(-Prompt needs a string as parameter).