PowerShell: Automating Administrative Tasks

Forcing data types

While developing scripts, you may run into instances where you may want to force a specific data type. This is helpful in cases where PowerShell automatically interprets the output from a command incorrectly. You can force data types by the use of brackets specifying a data type and a variable.

To force a string data type, execute the following command:

[string]$myString = "Forcing a String Container"
$myString

The output of this is shown in the following screenshot:

The preceding command forces the string data type to the $myString variable. The result is that the $myString variable will always remain a string. It is important to ...