# Operators
An operator is a character that represents an action. It tells the compiler/interpreter to perform specific mathematical, relational or logical operation and produce final result. PowerShell interprets in a specific way and categorizes accordingly like arithmetic operators perform operations primarily on numbers, but they also affect strings and other data types. Along with the basic operators,PowerShell has a number of operators that save time and coding effort(eg: -like,-match,-replace,etc).
# Comparison Operators
PowerShell comparison operators are comprised of a leading dash (-) followed by a name (eq for equal, gt for greater than, etc...).
Names can be preceded by special characters to modify the behavior of the operator:
i # Case-Insensitive Explicit (-ieq)
c # Case-Sensitive Explicit (-ceq)
Case-Insensitive is the default if not specified, ("a" -eq "A") same as ("a" -ieq "A").
Simple comparison operators:
2 -eq 2 # Equal to (==)
2 -ne 4 # Not equal to (!=)
5 -gt 2 # Greater-than (>)
5 -ge 5 # Greater-than or equal to (>=)
5 -lt 10 # Less-than (<)
5 -le 5 # Less-than or equal to (<=)
String comparison operators:
"MyString" -like "*String" # Match using the wildcard character (*)
"MyString" -notlike "Other*" # Does not match using the wildcard character (*)
"MyString" -match "$String^" # Matches a string using regular expressions
"MyString" -notmatch "$Other^" # Does not match a string using regular expressions
Collection comparison operators:
"abc", "def" -contains "def" # Returns true when the value (right) is present
# in the array (left)
"abc", "def" -notcontains "123" # Returns true when the value (right) is not present
# in the array (left)
"def" -in "abc", "def" # Returns true when the value (left) is present
# in the array (right)
"123" -notin "abc", "def" # Returns true when the value (left) is not present
# in the array (right)
# Arithmetic Operators
1 + 2 # Addition
1 - 2 # Subtraction
-1 # Set negative value
1 * 2 # Multiplication
1 / 2 # Division
1 % 2 # Modulus
100 -shl 2 # Bitwise Shift-left
100 -shr 1 # Bitwise Shift-right
# Assignment Operators
Simple arithmetic:
$var = 1 # Assignment. Sets the value of a variable to the specified value
$var += 2 # Addition. Increases the value of a variable by the specified value
$var -= 1 # Subtraction. Decreases the value of a variable by the specified value
$var *= 2 # Multiplication. Multiplies the value of a variable by the specified value
$var /= 2 # Division. Divides the value of a variable by the specified value
$var %= 2 # Modulus. Divides the value of a variable by the specified value and then
# assigns the remainder (modulus) to the variable
Increment and decrement:
$var++ # Increases the value of a variable, assignable property, or array element by 1
$var-- # Decreases the value of a variable, assignable property, or array element by 1
# Redirection Operators
Success output stream:
cmdlet > file # Send success output to file, overwriting existing content
cmdlet >> file # Send success output to file, appending to existing content
cmdlet 1>&2 # Send success and error output to error stream
Error output stream:
cmdlet 2> file # Send error output to file, overwriting existing content
cmdlet 2>> file # Send error output to file, appending to existing content
cmdlet 2>&1 # Send success and error output to success output stream
Warning output stream: (PowerShell 3.0+)
cmdlet 3> file # Send warning output to file, overwriting existing content
cmdlet 3>> file # Send warning output to file, appending to existing content
cmdlet 3>&1 # Send success and warning output to success output stream
Verbose output stream: (PowerShell 3.0+)
cmdlet 4> file # Send verbose output to file, overwriting existing content
cmdlet 4>> file # Send verbose output to file, appending to existing content
cmdlet 4>&1 # Send success and verbose output to success output stream
Debug output stream: (PowerShell 3.0+)
cmdlet 5> file # Send debug output to file, overwriting existing content
cmdlet 5>> file # Send debug output to file, appending to existing content
cmdlet 5>&1 # Send success and debug output to success output stream
Information output stream: (PowerShell 5.0+)
cmdlet 6> file # Send information output to file, overwriting existing content
cmdlet 6>> file # Send information output to file, appending to existing content
cmdlet 6>&1 # Send success and information output to success output stream
All output streams:
cmdlet *> file # Send all output streams to file, overwriting existing content
cmdlet *>> file # Send all output streams to file, appending to existing content
cmdlet *>&1 # Send all output streams to success output stream
Differences to the pipe operator (|)
Redirection operators only redirect streams to files or streams to streams. The pipe operator pumps an object down the pipeline to a cmdlet or the output. How the pipeline works differs in general from how redirection works and can be read on Working with the PowerShell pipeline (opens new window)
# Mixing operand types : the type of the left operand dictates the behavior.
For Addition
"4" + 2 # Gives "42"
4 + "2" # Gives 6
1,2,3 + "Hello" # Gives 1,2,3,"Hello"
"Hello" + 1,2,3 # Gives "Hello1 2 3"
For Multiplication
"3" * 2 # Gives "33"
2 * "3" # Gives 6
1,2,3 * 2 # Gives 1,2,3,1,2,3
2 * 1,2,3 # Gives an error op_Multiply is missing
The impact may have hidden consequences on comparison operators :
$a = Read-Host "Enter a number"
Enter a number : 33
$a -gt 5
False
# Logical Operators
-and # Logical and
-or # Logical or
-xor # Logical exclusive or
-not # Logical not
! # Logical not
# String Manipulation Operators
Replace operator:
The -replace operator replaces a pattern in an input value using a regular expression. This operator uses two arguments (separated by a comma): a regular expression pattern and its replacement value (which is optional and an empty string by default).
"The rain in Seattle" -replace 'rain','hail' #Returns: The hail in Seattle
"kenmyer@contoso.com" -replace '^[\w]+@(.+)', '$1' #Returns: contoso.com
Split and Join operators:
The -split operator splits a string into an array of sub-strings.
"A B C" -split " " #Returns an array string collection object containing A,B and C.
The -join operator joins an array of strings into a single string.
"E","F","G" -join ":" #Returns a single string: E:F:G