I am attemping to make the Destination from the Copy Item function be the $path and keep running into syntax error.
Function movefiles($dayhash){
foreach ($h in $dayhash.GetEnumerator() )
{
$path = "$formsfolderDaily Checklists\$today_($h.Value)"
Copy-Item $formsfolder$($h.Value) -Destination $formsfolder"Daily Checklists\"$today"_"$($h.Value)
editDate($path)
}
Desired outcome
Function movefiles($dayhash){
foreach ($h in $dayhash.GetEnumerator() )
{
$path = $formsfolder + "Daily Checklists\" + $today + "_" + ($h.Value)
Copy-Item $formsfolder$($h.Value) -Destination $path
editDate($path)
}
$path = "$formsfolderDaily Checklists\$today_($h.Value)"
This makes me think $FormsFolder is a path variable with a trailing backslash -- BUT THAT'S JUST A GUESS -- and one of the reasons Join-Path is so useful.
It's also hard to know what is a literal and what is part of a variblbe name when you start constructing complex expansion strings. I would recommend using the -f (Format operator) which nicely separates the literal and variable portions of your string. My best guess for the above would be:
$path = '{0}Daily Checklists\{1}_{2}' -f $formsfolder, $today, $h.Value
Your template string is on the the left-hand side of the operator, with zero-indexed placeholders in the format {0}, {1}, etc. The placeholders correspond to the variables/expressions/function calls found in the list on the right-hand side of the operator.
It sounds like you want to implement your solution using expandable (double-quoted) strings ("...").
To that end, you need to observe two fundamental rules:
In order to disambiguate variable names from subsequent characters, enclose their names in {...}, e.g. $[today} instead of just $today
Notably, _ is a legitimate character in a PowerShell variable name, so if a _ follows a variable reference {...} is needed too.
In order to embed expressions - such as $h.Value - inside "...", enclose them in $(...), the subexpression operator
You've done this in part in your question, but the first command is missing the $ before (.
For a complete overview of PowerShell's string-interpolation rules, see this answer.
Additionally:
You're using compound tokens composed of unquoted and quoted parts in order to form a single string argument, which is best avoided in PowerShell - see this answer.
Instead, use a single, "..."-enclosed string.
Therefore (the assumption is that the value of $formsfolder ends in \ (or /)):
Function movefiles($dayhash) {
foreach ($h in $dayhash.GetEnumerator() ) {
$path = "${formsfolder}Daily Checklists\$today_$($h.Value)"
Copy-Item "${formsfolder}$($h.Value)" -Destination "${formsfolder}Daily Checklists\${today}_$($h.Value)"
editDate $path
}
This self-answered question addresses the scenario originally described in Increment version number in file:
A version number embedded in a text file is to be incremented.
Sample text-file content:
nuspec{
id = XXX;
version: 0.0.30;
title: XXX;
For instance, I want embedded version number 0.0.30 updated to 0.0.31.
The line of interest can be assumed to match the following regex: ^\s+version: (.+);$
Note hat the intent is not to replace the version number with a fixed new version, but to increment the existing version.
Ideally, the increment logic would handle version strings representing either [version] (System.Version) or [semver] (System.Management.Automation.SemanticVersion) instances, ranging from 2 - 4 components; e.g.:
1.0
1.0.2
1.0.2.3 - [version] format (up to 4 numeric components)
1.0.2-preview2 - [semver] format (up to 3 numeric components), optionally with a --separated preview label
1.0.2-preview2+001 - ditto, additionally with a +-separated build label
In PowerShell [Core] (v6.1+), a concise solution is possible:
$file = 'somefile.txt'
(Get-Content -Raw $file) -replace '(?m)(?<=^\s+version: ).+(?=;$)', {
# Increment the *last numeric* component of the version number.
# See below for how to target other components.
$_.Value -replace '(?<=\.)\d+(?=$|-)', { 1 + $_.Value }
} | Set-Content $file
Note:
* In PowerShell [Core] 6+, BOM-less UTF-8 is the default encoding; use -Encoding with Set-Content if you need a different encoding.
* By using -Raw, the command reads the entire file into memory first, which enables writing back to that same file in the same pipeline; however, there is a slight risk of data loss if writing back to the input file gets interrupted.
* -replace invariably replaces all substrings that match the regex.
* Inline regex option (?m) ensures that ^ and $ match the start and end of individual lines, which is necessary due to Get-Content -Raw reading the entire file as a single, multi-line string.
Note:
For simplicity, text-based manipulation of the version string is performed, but you could also cast $_.Value to [version] or [semver] (PowerShell [Core] v6+ only) and work with that.
The advantage of the text-based manipulation is the concise ability to retain all other components of the input version string as-is, without adding previously unspecified ones.
The above relies on the -replace operator's ability to perform regex-based string substitutions fully dynamically, via a script block ({ ... }) - as explained in this answer.
The regexes use look-around assertions ((?<=...) and (?=...)) so as to ensure that only the part of the input to be modified is matched.
Only the (?<=^\s+version: ) and (?=;$) look-arounds are specific to the sample file format; adjust these parts as needed to match the version number in your file format.
The above increment's the input version's last numeric component.
To target the various version-number components, use the following inner regex instead:
Increment the major number (e.g., 2.0.9 -> 3.0.9):
'2.0.9' -replace '\d+(?=\..+)', { 1 + [int] $_.Value }
The minor number:
'2.0.9' -replace '(?<=^\d+\.)\d+(?=.*)', { 1 + [int] $_.Value }
The patch / build number (3rd component; 2.0.9 -> 2.0.10):
'2.0.9' -replace '(?<=^\d+\.\d+\.)\d+(?=.*)', { 1 + [int] $_.Value }
The last / revision number, as above, whatever it is, even if followed by a pre-release label (e.g.,; 2.0.9.10 -> 2.0.9.11 or 7.0.0-preview2 -> 7.0.1-preview2):
'2.0.9.10' -replace '(?<=\.)\d+(?=$|-)', { 1 + [int] $_.Value }
Note: If the targeted component doesn't exist, the original version is returned as-is.
In Windows PowerShell, where -replace doesn't support script-block-based substitutions, you can use the switch statement with the -File and -Regex options instead:
$file = 'someFile.txt'
$updatedFileContent =
switch -regex -file $file { # Loop over all lines in the file.
'^\s+version: (.+);$' { # line with version number
# Extract the old version number...
$oldVersion = $Matches[1]
# ... and update it, by incrementing the last component in this
# example.
$components = $oldVersion -split '\.'
$components[-1] = 1 + $components[-1]
$newVersion = $components -join '.'
# Replace the old version with the new version in the line
# and output the modified line.
$_.Replace($oldVersion, $newVersion)
}
default { # All other lines.
# Pass them through.
$_
}
}
# Save back to file. Use -Encoding as needed.
$updatedFileContent | Set-Content $file
I want to print the word exist in a text file and print "match" and "not match". My 1st text file is: xxaavv6J, my 2nd file is 6J6SCa.yB.
If it is match, it return like this:
Match found:
Match found:
Match found:
Match found:
Match found:
Match found: 6J
Match found:
Match found:
Match found:
My expectation is just print match and not match.
$X = Get-Content "C:\Users\2.txt"
$Data = Get-Content "C:\Users\d.txt"
$Split = $Data -split '(..)'
$Y = $X.Substring(0, 6)
$Z = $Y -split '(..)'
foreach ($i in $Z) {
foreach ($j in $Split) {
if ($i -like $j) {
Write-Host ("Match found: {0}" -f $i, $j)
}
}
}
The operation -split '(..)' does not produce the result you think it does. If you take a look at the output of the following command you'll see that you're getting a lot of empty results:
PS C:\> 'xxaavv6J' -split '(..)' | % { "-$_-" }
--
-xx-
--
-aa-
--
-vv-
--
-6J-
--
Those empty values are the additional matches you're getting from $i -like $j.
I'm not quite sure why -split '(..)' gives you any non-empty values in the first place, because I would have expected it to produce 5 empty strings for an input string "xxaavv6J". Apparently it has to do with the grouping parentheses, since -split '..' (without the grouping parentheses) actually does behave as expected. Looks like with the capturing group the captured matches are returned on top of the results of the split operation.
Anyway, to get the behavior you want replace
... -split '(..)'
with
... |
Select-String '..' -AllMatches |
Select-Object -Expand Matches |
Select-Object -Expand Value
You can also replace the nested loop with something like this:
foreach ($i in $Z) {
if (if $Split -contains $i) {
Write-Host "Match found: ${i}"
}
}
A slightly different approach using regex '.Match()' should also do it.
I have added a lot of explaining comments for you:
$Test = Get-Content "C:\Users\2.txt" -Raw # Read as single string. Contains "xxaavv6J"
$Data = (Get-Content "C:\Users\d.txt") -join '' # Read as array and join the lines with an empty string.
# This will remove Newlines. Contains "6J6SCa.yB"
# Split the data and make sure every substring has two characters
# In each substring, the regex special characters need to be Escaped.
# When this is done, we join the substrings together using the pipe symbol.
$Data = ($Data -split '(.{2})' | # split on every two characters
Where-Object { $_.Length -eq 2 } | # don't care about any left over character
ForEach-Object { [Regex]::Escape($_) } ) -join '|' # join with the '|' which is an OR in regular expression
# $Data is now a string to use with regular expression: "6J|6S|Ca|\.y"
# Using '.Match()' works Case-Sensitive. To have it compare Case-Insensitive, we do this:
$Data = '(?i)' + $Data
# See if we can find one or more matches
$regex = [regex]$Data
$match = $regex.Match($Test)
# If we have found at least one match:
if ($match.Groups.Count) {
while ($match.Success) {
# matched text: $match.Value
# match start: $match.Index
# match length: $match.Length
Write-Host ("Match found: {0}" -f $match.Value)
$match = $match.NextMatch()
}
}
else {
Write-Host "Not Found"
}
Result:
Match found: 6J
Further to the excellent Ansgar Wiechers' answer: if you are running (above) Windows PowerShell 4.0 then you could apply the .Where() method described in Kirk Munro's exhaustive article ForEach and Where magic methods:
With the release of Windows PowerShell 4.0, two new “magic” methods
were introduced for collection types that provide a new syntax for
accessing ForEach and Where capabilities in Windows PowerShell.
These methods are aptly named ForEach and Where. I call
these methods “magic” because they are quite magical in how they work
in PowerShell. They don’t show up in Get-Member output, even if you
apply -Force and request -MemberType All. If you roll up your
sleeves and dig in with reflection, you can find them; however, it
requires a broad search because they are private extension methods
implemented on a private class. Yet even though they are not
discoverable without peeking under the covers, they are there when you
need them, they are faster than their older counterparts, and they
include functionality that was not available in their older
counterparts, hence the “magic” feeling they leave you with when you
use them in PowerShell. Unfortunately, these methods remain
undocumented even today, almost a year since they were publicly
released, so many people don’t realize the power that is available in
these methods.
…
The Where method
Where is a method that allows you to filter a collection of objects.
This is very much like the Where-Object cmdlet, but the Where
method is also like Select-Object and Group-Object as well,
includes several additional features that the Where-Object cmdlet
does not natively support by itself. This method provides faster
performance than Where-Object in a simple, elegant command. Like
the ForEach method, any objects that are output by this method are
returned in a generic collection of type
System.Collections.ObjectModel.Collection1[psobject].
There is only one version of this method, which can be described as
follows:
Where(scriptblock expression[, WhereOperatorSelectionMode mode[, int numberToReturn]])
As indicated by the square brackets, the expression script block is
required and the mode enumeration and the numberToReturn integer
argument are optional, so you can invoke this method using 1, 2, or 3
arguments. If you want to use a particular argument, you must provide
all arguments to the left of that argument (i.e. if you want to
provide a value for numberToReturn, you must provide values for
mode and expression as well).
Applied to your case (using the simplest variant Where(scriptblock expression) of the .Where() method):
$X = '6J6SCa.yB' # Get-Content "C:\Users\2.txt"
$Data = 'xxaavv6J' # Get-Content "C:\Users\d.txt"
$Split = ($Data -split '(..)').Where({$_ -ne ''})
$Y = $X.Substring(0, 6)
$Z = ($Y -split '(..)').Where{$_ -ne ''} # without parentheses
For instance, Ansgar's example changes as follows:
PS > ('xxaavv6J' -split '(..)').Where{$_ -ne ''} | % { "-$_-" }
-xx-
-aa-
-vv-
-6J-
values.ini looks like
[default]
A=1
B=2
C=3
foo.txt looks like
Now is the %A% for %a% %B% men to come to the %C% of their %c%
I want to use Powershell to search for all of the %x% values in values.ini and then replace every matching instance in foo.txt with the corresponding value, case insensitively; generating the following:
Now is the 1 for 1 2 men to come to the 3 of their 3
Assuming PowerShell version 3.0 or newer, you can use the ConvertFrom-StringData cmdlet to parse the key-value pair in your ini file, but you'll need to filter out the [default] directive:
# grab relevant lines from file
$KeyValPairs = Get-Content .\values.ini | Where {$_ -like "*=*" }
# join strings together as one big string
$KeyValPairString = $KeyValPairs -join [Environment]::NewLine
# create hashtable/dictionary from string with ConvertFrom-StringData
$Dictionary = $KeyValPairString |ConvertFrom-StringData
You can then use the [regex]::Replace() method to do a lookup against the dictionary for each match you want to replace:
Get-Content .\foo.txt |ForEach-Object {
[Regex]::Replace($_, '%(\p{L}+)%', {
param($Match)
# look term up in dictionary
return $Dictionary[$Match.Groups[1].Value]
})
}
To complement Mathias R. Jessen's excellent answer with alternative approaches that also take the later requirement change of limiting values to a specific INI-file section into account (PSv2+, except for Get-Content -Raw; in PSv2, use (Get-Content ...) -join "`n" instead.)
Using PsIni\Get-IniContent and [environment]::ExpandEnvironmentVariables():
# Translate key-value pairs from section the section of interest
# into environment variables.
# After this command, the following environment variables are defined:
# $env:A, with value 1 (cmd.exe equivalent: %A%)
# $env:B, with value 2 (cmd.exe equivalent: %B%)
# $env:C, with value 3 (cmd.exe equivalent: %C%)
$section = 'default' # Specify the INI-file section of interest.
(Get-IniContent values.ini)[$section].GetEnumerator() |
ForEach-Object { Set-Item "env:$($_.Name)" -Value $_.Value }
# Read the template string as a whole from file foo.txt, and expand the
# environment-variable references in it, using the .NET framework.
# With the sample input, this yields
# "Now is the 1 for 1 2 men to come to the 3 of their 3".
[environment]::ExpandEnvironmentVariables((Get-Content -Raw foo.txt))
The 3rd-party Get-IniContent cmdlet, which conveniently reads an INI file (*.ini) into a nested, ordered hashtable, can easily be installed with Install-Module PsIni from an elevated console (alternatively, add -Scope CurrentUser), if you have PS v5+ (or v3 or v4 with PackageManagement installed).
This solution takes advantage of the fact that the placeholders (e.g., %a%) look like cmd.exe-style environment-variable references.
Note the assumptions and caveats:
All ini-file keys / placeholder names are legal environment-variable names.
Preexisting variables may be overwritten, which can be problematic with names such as PATH.
Cross-platform caveat: on Unix-like platforms, environment-variable references are case-sensitive, so the solution won't work the same there.
Using custom INI-file parsing and [environment]::ExpandEnvironmentVariables():
If installing a module for INI-file parsing is not an option, the following solution uses a - rather complex - regular expression to extract the section of interest via the -replace operator.
$section = 'default' # Specify the INI-file section of interest.
# Get all non-empty, non-comment lines from the section using a regex.
$sectLines = (Get-Content -Raw values.ini) -replace ('(?smn)\A.*?(^|\r\n)\[' + [regex]::Escape($section) + '\]\r\n(?<sectLines>.*?)(\r\n\[.*|\Z)'), '${sectLines}' -split "`r`n" -notmatch '(^;|^\s*$)'
# Define the key-value pairs as environment variables.
$sectlines | ForEach-Object { $tokens = $_ -split '=', 2; Set-Item "env:$($tokens[0].Trim())" -Value $tokens[1].Trim() }
# Read the template string as a whole, and expand the environment-variable
# references in it, as before.
[environment]::ExpandEnvironmentVariables((Get-Content -Raw foo.txt))
I found a simpler solution using this INI script called Get-IniContent.
#read from Setup.ini
$INI = Get-IniContent .\Setup.ini
$sec="setup"
#REPLACE VARIABLES
foreach($c in Get-ChildItem -Path .\Application -Recurse -Filter *.config)
{
Write-Output $c.FullName
Write-Output $c.DirectoryName
$configFile = Get-Content $c.FullName -Raw
foreach($v in $INI[$sec].Keys)
{
$k = '%'+$v+'%'
$match = [regex]::IsMatch($configFile, $k)
if($match)
{
$configFile = $configFile -ireplace [regex]::Escape($k), $INI[$sec][$v]
}
}
Set-Content $c.FullName -Value $configFile
}
What Powershell pitfalls you have fall into? :-)
Mine are:
# -----------------------------------
function foo()
{
#("text")
}
# Expected 1, actually 4.
(foo).length
# -----------------------------------
if(#($null, $null))
{
Write-Host "Expected to be here, and I am here."
}
if(#($null))
{
Write-Host "Expected to be here, BUT NEVER EVER."
}
# -----------------------------------
function foo($a)
{
# I thought this is right.
#if($a -eq $null)
#{
# throw "You can't pass $null as argument."
#}
# But actually it should be:
if($null -eq $a)
{
throw "You can't pass $null as argument."
}
}
foo #($null, $null)
# -----------------------------------
# There is try/catch, but no callstack reported.
function foo()
{
bar
}
function bar()
{
throw "test"
}
# Expected:
# At bar() line:XX
# At foo() line:XX
#
# Actually some like this:
# At bar() line:XX
foo
Would like to know yours to walk them around :-)
My personal favorite is
function foo() {
param ( $param1, $param2 = $(throw "Need a second parameter"))
...
}
foo (1,2)
For those unfamiliar with powershell that line throws because instead of passing 2 parameters it actually creates an array and passes one parameter. You have to call it as follows
foo 1 2
Another fun one. Not handling an expression by default writes it to the pipeline. Really annoying when you don't realize a particular function returns a value.
function example() {
param ( $p1 ) {
if ( $p1 ) {
42
}
"done"
}
PS> example $true
42
"done"
$files = Get-ChildItem . -inc *.extdoesntexist
foreach ($file in $files) {
"$($file.Fullname.substring(2))"
}
Fails with:
You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression.
At line:3 char:25
+ $file.Fullname.substring <<<< (2)
Fix it like so:
$files = #(Get-ChildItem . -inc *.extdoesntexist)
foreach ($file in $files) {
"$($file.Fullname.substring(2))"
}
Bottom line is that the foreach statement will loop on a scalar value even if that scalar value is $null. When Get-ChildItem in the first example returns nothing, $files gets assinged $null. If you are expecting an array of items to be returned by a command but there is a chance it will only return 1 item or zero items, put #() around the command. Then you will always get an array - be it of 0, 1 or N items. Note: If the item is already an array putting #() has no effect - it will still be the very same array (i.e. there is no extra array wrapper).
# The pipeline doesn't enumerate hashtables.
$ht = #{"foo" = 1; "bar" = 2}
$ht | measure
# Workaround: call GetEnumerator
$ht.GetEnumerator() | measure
Here are my top 5 PowerShell gotchas
Here is something Ive stumble upon lately (PowerShell 2.0 CTP):
$items = "item0", "item1", "item2"
$part = ($items | select-string "item0")
$items = ($items | where {$part -notcontains $_})
what do you think that $items be at the end of the script?
I was expecting "item1", "item2" but instead the value of $items is: "item0", "item1", "item2".
Say you've got the following XML file:
<Root>
<Child />
<Child />
</Root>
Run this:
PS > $myDoc = [xml](Get-Content $pathToMyDoc)
PS > #($myDoc.SelectNodes("/Root/Child")).Count
2
PS > #($myDoc.Root.Child).Count
2
Now edit the XML file so it has no Child nodes, just the Root node, and run those statements again:
PS > $myDoc = [xml](Get-Content $pathToMyDoc)
PS > #($myDoc.SelectNodes("/Root/Child")).Count
0
PS > #($myDoc.Root.Child).Count
1
That 1 is annoying when you want to iterate over a collection of nodes using foreach if and only if there actually are any. This is how I learned that you cannot use the XML handler's property (dot) notation as a simple shortcut. I believe what's happening is that SelectNodes returns a collection of 0. When #'ed, it is transformed from an XPathNodeList to an Object[] (check GetType()), but the length is preserved. The dynamically generated $myDoc.Root.Child property (which essentially does not exist) returns $null. When $null is #'ed, it becomes an array of length 1.
On Functions...
The subtleties of processing pipeline input in a function with respect to using $_ or $input and with respect to the begin, process, and end blocks.
How to handle the six principal equivalence classes of input delivered to a function (no input, null, empty string, scalar, list, list with null and/or empty) -- for both direct input and pipeline input -- and get what you expect.
The correct calling syntax for sending multiple arguments to a function.
I discuss these points and more at length in my Simple-Talk.com article Down the Rabbit Hole- A Study in PowerShell Pipelines, Functions, and Parameters and also provide an accompanying wallchart--here is a glimpse showing the various calling syntax pitfalls for a function taking 3 arguments:
On Modules...
These points are expounded upon in my Simple-Talk.com article Further Down the Rabbit Hole: PowerShell Modules and Encapsulation.
Dot-sourcing a file inside a script using a relative path is relative to your current directory -- not the directory where the script resides!
To be relative to the script use this function to locate your script directory: [Update for PowerShell V3+: Just use the builtin $PSScriptRoot variable!]
function Get-ScriptDirectory
{ Split-Path $script:MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path }
Modules must be stored as ...Modules\name\name.psm1 or ...\Modules\any_subpath\name\name.psm1. That is, you cannot just use ...Modules\name.psm1 -- the name of the immediate parent of the module must match the base name of the module. This chart shows the various failure modes when this rule is violated:
2015.06.25 A Pitfall Reference Chart
Simple-Talk.com just published the last of my triumvirate of in-depth articles on PowerShell pitfalls. The first two parts are in the form of a quiz that helps you appreciate a select group of pitfalls; the last part is a wallchart (albeit it would need a rather high-ceilinged room) containing 36 of the most common pitfalls (some adapted from answers on this page), giving concrete examples and workarounds for most. Read more here.
There are some tricks to building command lines for utilities that were not built with Powershell in mind:
To run an executable who's name starts with a number, preface it with an Ampersand (&).
& 7zip.exe
To run an executable with a space anywhere in the path, preface it with an Ampersand (&) and wrap it in quotes, as you would any string. This means that strings in a variable can be executed as well.
# Executing a string with a space.
& 'c:\path with spaces\command with spaces.exe'
# Executing a string with a space, after first saving it in a variable.
$a = 'c:\path with spaces\command with spaces.exe'
& $a
Parameters and arguments are passed to legacy utilities positionally. So it is important to quote them the way the utility expects to see them. In general, one would quote when it contains spaces or does not start with a letter, number or dash (-).
C:\Path\utility.exe '/parameter1' 'Value #1' 1234567890
Variables can be used to pass string values containing spaces or special characters.
$b = 'string with spaces and special characters (-/&)'
utility.exe $b
Alternatively array expansion can be used to pass values as well.
$c = #('Value #1', $Value2)
utility.exe $c
If you want Powershell to wait for an application to complete, you have to consume the output, either by piping the output to something or using Start-Process.
# Saving output as a string to a variable.
$output = ping.exe example.com | Out-String
# Piping the output.
ping stackoverflow.com | where { $_ -match '^reply' }
# Using Start-Process affords the most control.
Start-Process -Wait SomeExecutable.com
Because of the way they display their output, some command line utilities will appear to hang when ran inside of Powershell_ISE.exe, particularly when awaiting input from the user. These utilities will usually work fine when ran within Powershell.exe console.
PowerShell Gotchas
There are a few pitfall that repeatedly reappear on StackOverflow. It is recommend to do some research if you are not familiar with these PowerShell gotchas before asking a new question. It might even be a good idea to investigate in these PowerShell gotchas before answering a PowerShell question to make sure that you teach the questioner the right thing.
TLDR: In PowerShell:
the comparison equality operator is: -eq
(Stackoverflow example: Powershell simple syntax if condition not working)
parentheses and commas are not used with arguments
(Stackoverflow example: How do I pass multiple parameters into a function in PowerShell?)
output properties are based on the first object in the pipeline
(Stackoverflow example: Not all properties displayed)
the pipeline unrolls
(Stackoverflow example: Pipe complete array-objects instead of array items one at a time?)
a. single item collections
(Stackoverflow example: Powershell ArrayList turns a single array item back into a string)
b. embedded arrays
(Stackoverflow example: Return Multidimensional Array From Function)
c. output collections
(Stackoverflow example: Why does PowerShell flatten arrays automatically?)
$Null should be on the left side of the equality comparison operator
(Stackoverflow example: Should $null be on the left side of the equality comparison)
parentheses and assignments choke the pipeline
(Stackoverflow example: Importing 16MB CSV Into Variable Creates >600MB's Memory Usage)
the increase assignment operator (+=) might become expensive
Stackoverflow example: Improve the efficiency of my PowerShell scrip
The Get-Content cmdlet returns separate lines
Stackoverflow example: Multiline regex to match config block
Examples and explanations
Some of the gotchas might really feel counter-intuitive but often can be explained by some very nice PowerShell features along with the pipeline, expression/argument mode and type casting.
1. The comparison equality operator is: -eq
Unlike the Microsoft scripting language VBScript and some other programming languages, the comparison equality operator differs from the assignment operator (=) and is: -eq.
Note: assigning a value to a variable might pass through the value if needed:
$a = $b = 3 # The value 3 is assigned to both variables $a and $b.
This implies that following statement might be unexpectedly truthy or falsy:
If ($a = $b) {
# (assigns $b to $a and) returns a truthy if $b is e.g. 3
} else {
# (assigns $b to $a and) returns a falsy if $b is e.g. 0
}
2. Parentheses and commas are not used with arguments
Unlike a lot of other programming languages and the way a primitive PowerShell function is defined, calling a function doesn't require parentheses or commas for their related arguments. Use spaces to separate the parameter arguments:
MyFunction($Param1, $Param2 $Param3) {
# ...
}
MyFunction 'one' 'two' 'three' # assigns 'one' to $Param1, 'two' to $Param2, 'three' to $Param3
Parentheses and commas are used for calling (.Net) methods.
Commas are used to define arrays. MyFunction 'one', 'two', 'three' (or MyFunction('one', 'two', 'three')) will load the array #('one', 'two', 'three') into the first parameter ($Param1).
Parentheses will intepret the containing contents as a single collection into memory (and choke the PowerShell pipeline) and should only be used as such, e.g. to call an embedded function, e.g.:
MyFunction (MyOtherFunction) # passes the results MyOtherFunction to the first positional parameter of MyFunction ($Param1)
MyFunction One $Two (getThree) # assigns 'One' to $Param1, $Two to $Param2, the results of getThree to $Param3
Note: that quoting text arguments (as the word one in the later example) is only required when it contains spaces or special characters.
3. Output properties are based on the first object in the pipeline
In a PowerShell pipeline each object is processed and passed on by a cmdlet (that is implemented for the middle of a pipeline) similar to how objects are processed and passed on by workstations in an assembly line. Meaning each cmdlet processes one item at the time while the prior cmdlet (workstation) simultaneously processes the upcoming one. This way, the objects aren't loaded into memory at once (less memory usage) and could already be processed before the next one is supplied (or even exists). The disadvantage of this feature is that there is no oversight of what (or how many) objects are expected to follow.
Therefore most PowerShell cmdlets assume that all the objects in the pipeline correspond to the first one and have the same properties which is usually the case, but not always...
$List =
[pscustomobject]#{ one = 'a1'; two = 'a2' },
[pscustomobject]#{ one = 'b1'; two = 'b2'; three = 'b3' }
$List |Select-Object *
one two
--- ---
a1 a2
b1 b2
As you see, the third column three is missing from the results as it didn't exists in the first object and the PowerShell was already outputting the results prior it was aware of the exists of the second object.
On way to workaround this behavior is to explicitly define the properties (of all the following objects) at forehand:
$List |Select-Object one, two, three
one two three
--- --- -----
a1 a2
b1 b2 b3
See also proposal: #13906 Add -UnifyProperties parameter to Select-Object
4. The pipeline unrolls
This feature might come in handy if it complies with the straightforward expectation:
$Array = 'one', 'two', 'three'
$Array.Length
3
a. single item collections
But it might get confusing:
$Selection = $Array |Select-Object -First 2
$Selection.Length
2
$Selection[0]
one
when the collection is down to a single item:
$Selection = $Array |Select-Object -First 1
$Selection.Length
3
$Selection[0]
o
Explanation
When the pipeline outputs a single item which is assigned to a variable, it is not assigned as a collection (with 1 item, like: #('one')) but as a scalar item (the item itself, like: 'one').
Which means that the property .Length (which is in fact an alias for the property .Count for an array) is no longer applied on the array but on the string: 'one'.length which equals 3. And in case of the index $Selection[0] , the first character of the string 'one'[0] (which equals the character o) is returned .
Workaround
To workaround this behavior, you might force the scalar item to an array using the Array subexpression operator #( ):
$Selection = $Array |Select-Object -First 1
#($Selection).Length
1
#($Selection)[0]
one
Knowing that in the case the $Selection is already an array, it will will not be further increased in depth (#(#('one', 'two')), see the next section 4b. Embedded collections are flattened).
b. embedded arrays
When an array (or a collection) includes embedded arrays, like:
$Array = #(#('a', 'b'), #('c', 'd'))
$Array.Count
2
All the embedded items will be processed in the pipeline and consequently returns a flat array when displayed or assigned to a new variable:
$Processed = $Array |ForEach-Object { $_ }
$Processed.Count
4
$Processed
a
b
c
d
To iterate the embedded arrays, you might use the foreach statement:
foreach ($Item in $Array) { $Item.Count }
2
2
Or a simply for loop:
for ($i = 0; $i -lt $Array.Count; $i++) { $Array[$i].Count }
2
2
c. output collections
Collections are usually unrolled when they are placed on the pipeline:
function GetList {
[Collections.Generic.List[String]]#('a', 'b')
}
(GetList).GetType().Name
Object[]
To output the collection as a single item, use the comma operator ,:
function GetList {
,[Collections.Generic.List[String]]#('a', 'b')
}
(GetList).GetType().Name
List`1
5. $Null should be on the left side of the equality comparison operator
This gotcha is related to this comparison operators feature:
When the input of an operator is a scalar value, the operator returns a Boolean value. When the input is a collection, the operator returns the elements of the collection that match the right-hand value of the expression. If there are no matches in the collection, comparison operators return an empty array.
This means for scalars:
'a' -eq 'a' # returns $True
'a' -eq 'b' # returns $False
'a' -eq $Null # returns $False
$Null -eq $Null # returns $True
and for collections, the matching elements are returned which evaluates to either a truthy or falsy condition:
'a', 'b', 'c' -eq 'a' # returns 'a' (truthy)
'a', 'b', 'c' -eq 'd' # returns an empty array (falsy)
'a', 'b', 'c' -eq $Null # returns an empty array (falsy)
'a', $Null, 'c' -eq $Null # returns $Null (falsy)
'a', $Null, $Null -eq $Null # returns #($Null, $Null) (truthy!!!)
$Null, $Null, $Null -eq $Null # returns #($Null, $Null, $Null) (truthy!!!)
In other words, to check whether a variable is $Null (and exclude a collection containing multiple $Nulls), put $Null at the LHS (left hand side) of the equality comparison operator:
if ($Null -eq $MyVariable) { ...
6. Parentheses and assignments choke the pipeline
The PowerShell Pipeline is not just a series of commands connected by pipeline operators (|) (ASCII 124). It is a concept to simultaneously stream individual objects through a sequence of cmdlets. If a cmdlet (or function) is written according to the Strongly Encouraged Development Guidelines and implemented for the middle of a pipeline, it takes each single object from the pipeline, processes it and passes the results to the next cmdlet just before it takes and processes the next object in the pipeline. Meaning that for a simple pipeline as:
Import-Csv .\Input.csv |Select-Object -Property Column1, Column2 |Export-Csv .\Output.csv
As the last cmdlet writes an object to the .\Output.csv file, the Select-Object cmdlet selects the properties of the next object and the Import-Csv reads the next object from the .\input.csv file (see also: Pipeline in Powershell). This will keep the memory usage low (especially where there are lots of object/records to process) and therefore might result in a faster throughput. To facilitate the pipeline, the PowerShell objects are quiet fat as each individual object contains all the property information (along with e.g. the property name).
Therefore it is not a good practice to choke the pipeline for no reason. There are two senarios that choke the pipeline:
Parentheses, e.g.:
(Import-Csv .\Input.csv) |Select-Object -Property Column1, Column2 |Export-Csv .\Output.csv
Where all the .\Input.csv records are loaded as an array of PowerShell objects into memory before passing it on to the Select-Object cmdlet.
Assignments, e.g.:
$Objects = Import-Csv .\Input.csv
$Objects |Select-Object -Property Column1, Column2 |Export-Csv .\Output.csv
Where all the .\Input.csv records are loaded as an array of PowerShell objects into $Objects (memory as well) before passing it on to the Select-Object cmdlet.
7. the increase assignment operator (+=) might become expensive
The increase assignment operator (+=) is syntactic sugar to increase and assign primitives as .e.g. $a += $b where $a is assigned $b + 1. The increase assignment operator can also be used for adding new items to a collection (or to String types and hash tables) but might get pretty expensive as the costs increases with each iteration (the size of the collection). The reason for this is that objects as array collections are immutable and the right variable in not just appended but *appended and reassigned to the left variable. For details see also: avoid using the increase assignment operator (+=) to create a collection
8. The Get-Content cmdlet returns separate lines
There are probably quite some more cmdlet gotchas, knowing that there exist a lot of (internal and external) cmdlets. In contrast to engine related gotchas, these gotchas are often easier to highlight (with e.g. a warning) as happend with ConvertTo-Json (see: Unexpected ConvertTo-Json results? Answer: it has a default -Depth of 2) or "fix". But there is very clasic gotcha in Get-Content which tight into the PowerShell general concept of streaming objects (in this case lines) rather than passing everything (the whole contents of the file) in once:
Get-Content .\Input.txt -Match '\r?\n.*Test.*\r?\n'
Will never work because, by default, Get-Contents returns a stream of objects where each object contains a single string (a line without any line breaks).
(Get-Content .\Input.txt).GetType().Name
Object[]
(Get-Content .\Input.txt)[0].GetType().Name
String
In fact:
Get-Content .\Input.txt -Match 'Test'
Returns all the lines with the word Test in it as Get-Contents puts every single line on the pipeline and when the input is a collection, the operator returns the elements of the collection that match the right-hand value of the expression.
Note: since PowerShell version 3, Get-Contents has a -Raw parameter that reads all the content of the concerned file at once, Meaning that this: Get-Content -Raw .\Input.txt -Match '\r?\n.*Test.*\r?\n' will work as it loads the whole file into memory.
alex2k8, I think this example of yours is good to talk about:
# -----------------------------------
function foo($a){
# I thought this is right.
#if($a -eq $null)
#{
# throw "You can't pass $null as argument."
#}
# But actually it should be:
if($null -eq $a)
{
throw "You can't pass $null as argument."
}
}
foo #($null, $null)
PowerShell can use some of the comparators against arrays like this:
$array -eq $value
## Returns all values in $array that equal $value
With that in mind, the original example returns two items (the two $null values in the array), which evalutates to $true because you end up with a collection of more than one item. Reversing the order of the arguments stops the array comparison.
This functionality is very handy in certain situations, but it is something you need to be aware of (just like array handling in PowerShell).
Functions 'foo' and 'bar' looks equivalent.
function foo() { $null }
function bar() { }
E.g.
(foo) -eq $null
# True
(bar) -eq $null
# True
But:
foo | %{ "foo" }
# Prints: foo
bar | %{ "bar" }
# PRINTS NOTHING
Returning $null and returning nothing is not equivalent dealing with pipes.
This one is inspired by Keith Hill example...
function bar() {}
$list = #(foo)
$list.length
# Prints: 0
# Now let's try the same but with a temporal variable.
$tmp = foo
$list = #($tmp)
$list.length
# Prints: 1
Another one:
$x = 2
$y = 3
$a,$b = $x,$y*5
because of operators precedence there is not 25 in $b; the command is the same as ($x,$y)*5
the correct version is
$a,$b = $x,($y*5)
The logical and bitwise operators don't follow standard precedence rules. The operator -and should have a higher priority than -or yet they're evaluated strictly left-to-right.
For example, compare logical operators between PowerShell and Python (or virtually any other modern language):
# PowerShell
PS> $true -or $false -and $false
False
# Python
>>> True or False and False
True
...and bitwise operators:
# PowerShell
PS> 1 -bor 0 -band 0
0
# Python
>>> 1 | 0 & 0
1
This works. But almost certainly not in the way you think it's working.
PS> $a = 42;
PS> [scriptblock]$b = { $a }
PS> & $b
42
This one has tripped me up before, using $o.SomeProperty where it should be $($o.SomeProperty).
# $x is not defined
[70]: $x -lt 0
True
[71]: [int]$x -eq 0
True
So, what's $x..?
Another one I ran into recently: [string] parameters that accept pipeline input are not strongly typed in practice. You can pipe anything at all and PS will coerce it via ToString().
function Foo
{
[CmdletBinding()]
param (
[parameter(Mandatory=$True, ValueFromPipeline=$True)]
[string] $param
)
process { $param }
}
get-process svchost | Foo
Unfortunately there is no way to turn this off. Best workaround I could think of:
function Bar
{
[CmdletBinding()]
param (
[parameter(Mandatory=$True, ValueFromPipeline=$True)]
[object] $param
)
process
{
if ($param -isnot [string]) {
throw "Pass a string you fool!"
}
# rest of function goes here
}
}
edit - a better workaround I've started using...
Add this to your custom type XML -
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Types>
<Type>
<Name>System.String</Name>
<Members>
<ScriptProperty>
<Name>StringValue</Name>
<GetScriptBlock>
$this
</GetScriptBlock>
</ScriptProperty>
</Members>
</Type>
</Types>
Then write functions like this:
function Bar
{
[CmdletBinding()]
param (
[parameter(Mandatory=$True, ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$True)]
[Alias("StringValue")]
[string] $param
)
process
{
# rest of function goes here
}
}
Forgetting that $_ gets overwritten in blocks made me scratch my head in confusion a couple times, and similarly for multiple reg-ex matches and the $matches array. >.<
Remembering to explicitly type pscustom objects from imported data tables as numeric so they can be sorted correctly:
$CVAP_WA=foreach ($i in $C){[PSCustomObject]#{ `
County=$i.county; `
TotalVote=[INT]$i.TotalBallots; `
RegVoters=[INT]$i.regvoters; `
Turnout_PCT=($i.TotalBallots/$i.regvoters)*100; `
CVAP=[INT]($B | ? {$_.GeoName -match $i.county}).CVAP_EST }}
PS C:\Politics> $CVAP_WA | sort -desc TotalVote |ft -auto -wrap
County TotalVote RegVoters Turnout_PCT CVAP CVAP_TV_PCT CVAP_RV_PCT
------ --------- --------- ----------- ---- ----------- -----------
King 973088 1170638 83.189 1299290 74.893 90.099
Pierce 349377 442985 78.86 554975 62.959 79.837
Snohomish 334354 415504 80.461 478440 69.832 86.81
Spokane 227007 282442 80.346 342060 66.398 82.555
Clark 193102 243155 79.453 284190 67.911 85.52
Mine are both related to file copying...
Square Brackets in File Names
I once had to move a very large/complicated folder structure using Move-Item -Path C:\Source -Destination C:\Dest. At the end of the process there were still a number of files in source directory. I noticed that every remaining file had square brackets in the name.
The problem was that the -Path parameter treats square brackets as wildcards.
EG. If you wanted to copy Log001 to Log200, you could use square brackets as follows:
Move-Item -Path C:\Source\Log[001-200].log.
In my case, to avoid square brackets being interpreted as wildcards, I should have used the -LiteralPath parameter.
ErrorActionPreference
The $ErrorActionPreference variable is ignored when using Move-Item and Copy-Item with the -Verbose parameter.
Treating the ExitCode of a Process as a Boolean.
eg, with this code:
$p = Start-Process foo.exe -NoNewWindow -Wait -PassThru
if ($p.ExitCode) {
# handle error
}
things are good, unless say foo.exe doesn't exist or otherwise fails to launch.
in that case $p will be $null, and [bool]($null.ExitCode) is False.
a simple fix is to replace the logic with if ($p.ExitCode -ne 0) {},
however for clarity of code imo the following is better: if (($p -eq $null) -or ($p.ExitCode -ne 0)) {}