Windows PowerShell Quick Reference

Strings

Windows PowerShell offers several facilities for working with plain-text data.

Literal and Expanding Strings

To define a literal string (one in which no variable or escape expansion occurs), enclose it in single quotes:

$myString = 'hello `t $ENV:SystemRoot'
$myString gets the actual value of hello `t $ENV:SystemRoot

To define an expanding string (one in which variable and escape expansion occurs), enclose it in double quotes:

$myString = "hello `t $ENV:SystemRoot"
$myString gets a value similar to hello         C:\WINDOWS

To include a single quote in a single-quoted string, or a double quote in a double-quoted string, you may include two of the quote characters in a row:

PS >"Hello ""There""!"
Hello "There"!
PS >'Hello ''There''!'
Hello 'There'!

Tip

To include a complex expression inside of an expanding string, use a subexpression. For example:

$prompt = "$(get-location) >"
$prompt gets a value similar to c:\temp >

Accessing the properties of an object counts as a complex expression:

$output = "Current script name is: $($myInvocation.MyCommand.Path)"

$output gets a value similar to Current script name is c:\Test-Script.ps1

Here Strings

To define a here string (one that may span multiple lines), place the two characters @” at the beginning, and the two characters “@ on their own line at the end.

For example:

$myHereString = @"
This text may span multiple lines, and may
contain "quotes".
"@

Here strings may be of either the literal or expanding variety.

Escape Sequences

Windows PowerShell supports the ...