CODEWITHSUNDEEP
powershell
tamani
tamani

Reputation: 11

Read host in powershell not working correctly

I just can't get the read host yes/no prompt to work properly.

do { $answer = Read-Host "yes or no" } 
until ("yes","no" -ccontains $answer)

if ($answer = "$yes"){
   write-host "time is enabled"
} Else {
   write-host "time service disabled"
}

It always jumps to else, sorry I'm kinda new.

cheers

Upvotes: 0

Views: 2882

Answers (3)

Emperor XLII
Emperor XLII

Reputation: 13422

The primary issue is with the line if ($answer = "$yes").

  • First, as Stephen pointed out, = always means assignment in PowerShell. To compare the values, you would use the -eq operator.
  • Second, the comparison value "$yes" is also inadvertently using variable expansion. Since the variable $yes is not defined, the operand evaluates to the empty string, "".
  • The end result is that $answer is overwritten with "", which is then evaluated by the if statement as being logically false, thus entering the else block.

Changing the line to if( $answer -eq 'yes' ) will fix the issue.

Also, the use of the case-sensitive -ccontains operator in the do/until loop is more restrictive than it needs to be. The default in PowerShell is to do case-insensitive comparisons, so that entering yes, or Yes, or YES will all pass.

Alternatively, if case-sensitivity is important for your scenario, you might want to consistently use case-sensitive operators throughout your script (i.e. using -ceq in your if statement).

For more information, see the help topic about_Comparison_Operators.

Upvotes: 0

Shane Callanan
Shane Callanan

Reputation: 2305

The code you supplied is contains a typo, -ccontains should be -contains

Also, the line: ($answer = "$yes") is comparing the $answer variable to the $yes variable, which does not exist in the snippet you provided.

If you're trying to see if the $answer variable is equal to "yes", then remove the dollar sign from the beginning of the string.

Here is the corrected version:

do { $answer = Read-Host "Yes or no" } 
until ("yes","no" -contains $answer)

if ($answer -eq "yes")
{
   write-host "time is enabled"
}
else
{
   write-host "time service disabled"
}

Upvotes: 0

Stephen Connolly
Stephen Connolly

Reputation: 1639

Common syntax error - don't use = where you mean -eq :)

if ($answer -eq "yes"){

Upvotes: 4

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