Why is a comparison between Date Time objects causing powershell to crash? - powershell

Question

I am trying to write a simple script that lets the user select from 5 options to either write some text or run some basic commands. For some reason, the program crashes when I select option 1.
Write-Output " "
Write-Output "Hello. I am the Augur of Dunlain. I know many things. Ask, that which you do not yet know:"
sleep 2
Write-Output "1. How many more days until Christmas?"
Write-Output "2. What processes are running on my computer?"
Write-Output "3. What is System32?"
Write-Output "4. Why are the Blades saying that I have to kill Parthunaax?"
Write-Output "5. What is my age?"
$choice = Read-Host -Prompt "Choose options 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5"
If ($choice -eq "1"){
$currentDate = Get-Date
$christmas = Get-Date "12/25/2021"
$timeSpan = New-Timespan -Start $currentDate -End $christmas
if(timeSpan.days -gt 0){
Write-Output "There are " + $timeSpan.Days + " days left until Christmas."
sleep 3
}
else {
Write-Output "It is Christmas today! Merry Christmas!"
sleep 3
}
}
elseif ($choice -eq "2"){
$processes = Get-Process
Write-Output $processes
sleep 25
}
elseif ($choice -eq "3"){
Write-Output "System 32 is the collection of the following files and directories:"
$system32 = Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Windows\System32
Write-Output $system32
sleep 25
}
elseif ($choice -eq "4"){
Write-Output "They are intollerant, plain and simple. Parthunaax is a total G, so if the Blades are telling you to kill him you can tell them that they are stinky nerds and you don't want to play with them any more."
}
elseif ($choice -eq "5"){
}
else {
Write-Output "Looks like you have failed the simple task of selecting a number 1 through 5. I figured a monkey would have been capable of doing that but I guess you're inferior to the monkey. Try again but this time be better."
}

Answer 1

Based on the current version of the question you are missing a $ in the If(timeSpan.days) should be If($timeSpan.days) and in the write-output don't try to add strings just use PowerShell string expansion as shown.
If ($choice -eq "1"){
$currentDate = Get-Date
$christmas = Get-Date "12/25/2021"
$timeSpan = New-Timespan -Start $currentDate -End $christmas
if($timeSpan.days -gt 0){
Write-Output "There are $($timeSpan.Days) days left until Christmas."
sleep 3
}
Sample output:
Choose options 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5: 1
There are 150 days left until Christmas.
HTH

Answer 2

Not sure what you mean by "the program crashes when I select option 1", but you could use a switch instead of all these if() .. elseif()'s, to make the code a lot clearer.
With the time comparison, you should IMO compare the two dates without the time part, so as of midnight.
On my machine Get-Date "12/25/2021" won't work and will result in an exception:
Get-Date : Cannot bind parameter 'Date'. Cannot convert value "12/25/2021" to type "System.DateTime".
This is because my current locale is set for Dutch, so I would need to reverse the day and month numbers to Get-Date "25/12/2021"
Then of course, if you run this after December 25th, hardcoding the Christmas date is a bad choice and you need to make an adjustment to that if this is the case.
Try below
$choice = Read-Host -Prompt "Choose options 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5"
switch ($choice) {
'1' {
# eliminate the time from both dates, so they are set to midnight
$currentDate = (Get-Date).Date
$christmas = (Get-Date -Year $currentDate.Year -Month 12 -Day 25).Date
# if today is already past December 25th of this year
if ($currentDate -gt $christmas) { $christmas.AddYears(1) }
$timeSpan = New-Timespan -Start $currentDate -End $christmas
if ($timeSpan.TotalDays -eq 0) {
"It is Christmas today! Merry Christmas!"
}
else {
"There are {0} days left until Christmas." -f $timeSpan.TotalDays
}
Start-Sleep 3
}
'2' { Get-Process | Format-Table -AutoSize; Start-Sleep 25 }
# the rest of your options go here
default { "Please enter a number from 1 to 5" }