On Friday, February 3, we posted a Friday Puzzle that shows a PowerShell function and a PowerShell class method that contain the same command sequence, including a statement with the Return keyword. The puzzle asks: What does the function return? What does the class method return? And, of course, we want to understand why. To […]
Tag: Functions
Setting Conditional Breakpoints
Applies to PowerShell Studio 2016, PrimalScript 2016, and later. I write lots of scripts — for production, for research, for testing, and for demonstrations. And, inevitably, I hit a bug. I’m actually relieved when I do, because no code is perfect and I’d rather find the bugs before my users do. In fact, I make […]
What’s new in PrimalScript 2015?
Our 2015 versions have been out for a while and most of you already know about some of the new features. But we want to make sure you don’t miss anything, so here is a brief recap. PrimalScript 2015 now has a PowerShell dialog editor If you create graphical user interfaces (GUI) in PowerShell all […]
Adding Parameter Sets to a Function
Like many of you, I really live at the command line, because automation is more efficient than single actions. But, as the command line becomes more complex, we need tools to restore our efficiency. The complex syntax of parameter sets in functions is one of those cases. In this post, I learn to use the […]
PowerShell Studio 2014: Convert Functions into a Module
PowerShell Studio 2014 added a new project feature: New Module From Functions. You may find at times you reuse various functions and constantly copy them into new scripts or find different variations of the same function are located in different scripts. You may come to the conclusion that those functions would better serve you in […]
Revisiting The Packager and Command Line Arguments
The original The Packager and Command line Arguments blog article discussed how to pass parameters to a packaged executable. In this article we will revisit this subject and update the functions introduced in the previous article. The article will also cover how to simulate the packager parameters so that you can test your script without […]
PrimalScript 2012: What’s new? (Part 7)
Last time we told you about some new debugger features in PrimalScript 2012. And you already know all about the new Ribbon user interface this new version sports. One thing that we were really focused about in this version was to make navigating your code easier. Since there is no “PrimalSense” toolbar anymore the method […]
PowerShell Functions: Return vs Write
The other day I was involved in a short Twitter debate about the relative merits of using RETURN vs Write-Object (or its alias Write) in PowerShell functions. Here’s my take.
VBScript Includes
I’ve been using VBScript for a very long time. One drawback it has always had as a scripting language is an INCLUDE statement. In other languages you can use something like INCLUDE scriptfile at the beginning of the script. This would load any functions and variables in the specified script file into your current script. In PowerShell we can accomplish this by dot sourcing scripts. I never knew of a way to do the same thing with VBScript until now.
Good, Better, Best
I’m very happy to see more and more people getting their hands dirty with Windows PowerShell. A common challenge I see across different support forums is getting information from one part of a script to another. Very often the user has created a function and is attempting to use its output elsewhere in their script. Often I can tell the scripter is coming from a VBScript background or at least thinking that way. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with writing a PowerShell script in a VBScript style, but these scripts are missing out. Let me walk you through several iterations of a function to demonstrate.
