What Does "-" Do In Powershell?

7 minutes read

In PowerShell, the "-" character is used as a parameter indicator in commands. It is typically followed by a parameter name that modifies the behavior of the command. For example, when using the "Get-Process" command, the "-Name" parameter can be used to specify the name of the process to retrieve information about. The "-" character plays a crucial role in effectively using PowerShell commands and passing parameters to them.

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How to use the "-" symbol alongside wildcard characters in Powershell filters?

In PowerShell, the "-" symbol (minus sign) can be used alongside wildcard characters in filters to exclude certain elements from the search results.


For example, to list all files in a directory except those starting with "abc", you can use the following command:

1
Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\Path\To\Directory" -Filter "*.txt" | Where-Object { $_.Name -notlike "abc*" }


In this command:

  • Get-ChildItem lists all files in the specified directory
  • -Filter "*.txt" filters only files with a .txt extension
  • Where-Object { $_.Name -notlike "abc*" } filters out files whose names start with "abc"


You can adjust the wildcard pattern and condition based on your specific filtering needs.


How does the "-" symbol affect Powershell parameters?

In PowerShell, the "-" symbol is commonly used to indicate named parameters in command calls. When specifying parameters in PowerShell commands, the "-" symbol prefixes the parameter name to distinguish it from the value being passed. For example, in the command Get-Process -Name "explorer", the "-" symbol indicates that "Name" is a named parameter, and it corresponds to the value "explorer".


Additionally, the "-" symbol can also be used as a subtraction operator in mathematical operations within PowerShell scripts. When used in this context, it performs arithmetic subtraction on the values provided.


How to use the "-" symbol to reference specific variables in Powershell?

In Powershell, the "-" symbol is used as the prefix for parameter names in cmdlets and functions. To reference specific variables using the "-" symbol, you can use the following syntax:


$variable1 = "Value 1" $variable2 = "Value 2"

Using "-" symbol to reference variables

Write-Host $variable1 Write-Host $variable2


In this example, the "-" symbol is used to reference the variables $variable1 and $variable2 when outputting their values using the Write-Host cmdlet.


You can also use the "-" symbol in combination with other characters, such as in variable names or parameter names, to create more complex commands and scripts in Powershell.

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