File path with quotation mark issue of Powershell

Question

I was trying to write a script to test the availability of the file path. One of the process is that user have to input the file path or just drag the file into the Powershell command prompt.

In this process, User will input the file path like C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe and the string will become the value of $filePath variable which will be used as the parameter of the Test-Path command.

But sometime, user will just drag the file into the Powershell command prompt so that the string will have a pair of quotation mark included just like the picture 1. ("C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe") Picture 1

Then you will see when I try to test the path using Test-Path command with that $filePath variable while the value(string) of the $filePath included a pair of quotation mark, the result will always be False even though the path is existing and valid. But when I use the same Test-Path command without using variable (I mean just copy and paste the file path into the command), it works normally.

IT'S WEIRD!

I have tried typing the file path by keyboard into the variable instead of dragging the file into Powershell command prompt. (Without Quotation mark) Then use the same method to test the filepath (using variable for the file path). It works fine.

Picture 2

I don't get it. Aren't they the same thing?

when

$filePath = "C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe"

Below 2 commands SHOULD have the same result! WHY they are not?

Test-Path -Path $filePath
Test-Path -Path "C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe"

Answer 1

In case of drag and drop, it looks like if the path has no spaces it will return true . If it has a space then PowerShell places quotes around it. In that case, PowerShell is literally seeing the path as "C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe"

What you can do is use the -replace operator like this -

Test-Path -path ($filepath -replace '"', "") -PathType Leaf

OR

As suggested by @Josefz in the comments, you could also use Trim() method like -

Test-Path -path ($filepath.Trim('"')) -PathType Leaf

Not exactly an explanation to your problem, but you could use this as a workaround.

Answer 2

If the user types a filename that contains embedded " characters, then Test-Path will return $false. Why? File names cannot contain the " character; the " character is used by parsers to indicate that an argument in a string contains whitespace. So this will of course return $false:

$filePath = '"C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe"'
Test-Path $filePath

The embedded " characters are not part of the file name; you need to omit them for the result to be $true.

Answer 3

What version of powershell are you using? I get true for both commands

PS C:\Users> $filePath = "C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe"
PS C:\Users> Test-Path -Path $filePath
True
PS C:\Users> Test-Path -Path "C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe"
True
PS C:\Users> $PSVersionTable.PSVersion
Major  Minor  Build  Revision
-----  -----  -----  --------
5      1      17134  48    

EDIT ----------

Got it, the problem is that Read-Host will save the string literally, with the quotes. The simple solution is to remove the quotes

PS C:\Users> $filePath = Read-Host -Prompt "enter input"
enter input: "C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe"
PS C:\Users> $filePath
"C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe"
PS C:\Users> Test-Path -Path $filePath
False
PS C:\Users> Test-Path -Path $filePath.replace("`"","")
True