Unable to pass value from command line to Object - Powershell Paramter

Question

I am trying to figure out how to pass a paramter that contains special characters in Powershell to an Object inside my function. Here is an example of my code.

 function a{
 param(
 [string]$string    
 )
 #convert to URL encoding here
 #Query API
 #Return JSON values
 }

Now I type this in Powershell

 PS> a  foo(foo; bar) foo/bar ver1.0

And it fires on an error for ";" and then ")" being part of the string

Here is the error:

 At line:1 char:32
 + a  foo(foo; bar) foo/bar ver1.0
 +                                ~
 Missing closing ')' in expression.
 At line:1 char:41
 + a  foo(foo; bar) foo/bar ver1.0
 +                                         ~
 Unexpected token ')' in expression or statement.
 + CategoryInfo          : ParserError: (:) [],        ParentContainsErrorRecordException
 + FullyQualifiedErrorId : MissingEndParenthesisInExpression

@arco444 I'd prefer not to use single quotes each time that I do this. Is there any way around that? — Alexander Sinno
– Alexander Sinno, Commented Dec 16, 2016 at 15:25
You have to use quotes or escape special characters else PowerShell thinks they are separate and or special items. This is core of how PowerShell, and other languages parsing, works. — Matt
– Matt, Commented Dec 16, 2016 at 16:08

arco444 · Accepted Answer · 2016-12-16 15:42:19Z

2

You have two options the way I see it.

Use single quotes:

a 'foo(foo; bar) foo/bar ver1.0'

Or escape all the special characters:

a foo`(foo`;` bar`)` foo/bar` ver1.0

answered Dec 16, 2016 at 15:42

arco444

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3 Comments

Alexander Sinno Over a year ago

These are the only viable solutions it seems. So in this case I will accept this as the best answer. However, I reverted to using Read-Host to accept the input since it's easier than wrapping them in quotes each time.

Matt Over a year ago

@Badlarry Read-Host is returning a string for you and interpreting all input as that string. I suppose that works but seems odd that you think spending time typing on every execution is easier then just typing two quotes

Alexander Sinno Over a year ago

@Matt hey Matt, I am only copying and pasting into the commandline. So I am actually not typing anything at all besides my cmdlet. I guess it's just my preference at this point. If I feel the need I can always change back to using the parameter method for a more modular approach. Thanks for the information as well in both of your posts.

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