PowerShell Operators

Updated March 18, 2023

What are PowerShell Operators?

We mostly use PowerShell Operators to execute commands. If you want to do something you will search for that command on the web and copy the command and paste it in either command prompt or PowerShell. But truly PowerShell is an object-oriented automation tool rather than a DOS Command-line interface.

PowerShell Operators

In this section, I will explain the commonly used operators supported by PowerShell. But It has a lot of operators. that I listed below,

1. Arithmetic Operators (+, -, *, /, %)
2. Assignment Operators (=, +=, -=, *=, /=, %=)
3. Comparison Operators
   • Equality Operators (-eq, -ne, -gt, -lt, -le, -ge)
   • Matching Operators(-match, -notmatch, -replace)
   • Containment comparison Operators (-in, -notin, -contains, -notcontains)
4. Logical Operators (-and, -or, -xor, -not, !)
5. Redirection Operators (>, >>, and >&1)
6. Split and Join Operators (-split, -join)
7. Type Operators (-is, -isnot, -as)
8. Unary Operators (++, –)
9. Special Operators

Different Types of PowerShell Operators

PowerShell Operators are easy to use. Here we will discuss how to use PowerShell Operators with the help of examples.

1. Arithmetic Operators

Arithmetic operators calculate numeric values. You can do addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, remainder operation. In addition + and * operates on string, arrays and hash tables.

Operator	Description	Example
+	Adds numeric values	6 + 2
	concatenates a string, arrays, and hash tables	“edu” + “CBA”
–	Subtracts numeric values	8 – 9
	Makes a number negative	-98
*	Multiple numeric values	6 * 2
	copy string, arrays to the specified number of times	“!” * 3
/	Divides numeric values	9 / 7
%	Gives remainder after division	9 % 3

2. Assignment Operators

PowerShell Assignment operators assign, change or append values to variables.

Operator	Description	Example
=	Assign value to variable	$a = 3
+=	Adds and assign value to the variable	$a += 4
	Concatenates string at the end	$b = “Hello, “ $b += “World”
	Adds number to array	$a = 1,2,3 $a += 2
-=	Subtracts and assign value to the variable	$a -= 9
*=	Multiplies and assign value to the variable	$a *= 2
	Appends string with a specified number of times	$e = “String “ $e * 5
/=	Divides and assign a value to the variable	$a /= 7
%=	Divides and assign a remainder value to the variable	$a %= 3

3. Comparison operators

• Equality Operators

Check for equality of values. This includes numeric, strings, array. It will return True or False are a result.

Operator	Description	Example
-eq	Check for equal value	1 -eq 1
	Check for equal arrays	1,2,3 -eq 2
	Check for equal strings	“Hello” -eq “World”
-ne	Check for non-equal value	1 -ne 2
	Check for non-equal arrays	1,2,3 -ne 2
	Check for non-equal strings	“Hello” -ne “World”
-gt	Check for greater value	8 -gt 6
	Check all greater values in array and prints one by one	7, 8, 9 -gt 8
-ge	Check for greater or equal value	8 -ge 8
	Check all greater values or equal values in array and prints one by one	7, 8, 9 -ge 8
-lt	Check for lesser value	8 -lt 6
	Check all lesser values in array and prints one by one	7, 8, 9 -lt 8
-le	Check for lesser or equal value	6 -le 8
	Check all lesser values or equal values in array and prints one by one	7, 8, 9 -le 8

• Matching Operators

These PowerShell operators are capable of finding elements with specific patterns using wild card expressions.

Operator	Description	Example
-match	Matches a string with a specified regular expression	“Sunday”, “Monday”, “Tuesday” -match “sun”
-notmatch	Does not match a string with a specified regular expression	“Sunday”, “Monday”, “Tuesday” -notmatch “sun”
-replace	Check for the given string and replace with specified string	“book” -replace “B”, “C”

• Containment Comparison Operators

These PowerShell Operators are used to checks for the existence of a specified element or array in an array.

Operator	Description	Example
-contains	Checks for the existence of a specified element in an array	“red”, “yellow” -contains “red”
-notcontains	Checks for the non-existence of specified element in an array	“red”, “yellow” -notcontains “green”
-in	Checks for the existence of a specified element in an array	“red” -in “red”, “yellow”
-notin	Checks for the non-existence of specified element in an array	“green” -notin “red”, “yellow”

Note: both contain and in do the same operation, the operand order differs, in “contains” we take right-hand value to check against left-hand value. But in “in” we take left-hand value to check against right-hand value.

4. Logical Operators

It also allows us to use logical operations like AND, OR, NOT, XOR.

Operator	Description	Example
-and	Truth with both statements is TRUE.	1 -and 1
-or	Truth with any one of the statements is TRUE.	1 -or 0
-xor	Truth when only of the statement is TRUE.	1 -xor 0
-not	Negates the statement.	-not 1
!	Negates the statement	!0

5. Redirection Operator

These are used to redirect the output of one command as the input to another command.

Operator	Description	Example
>	Send all success stream data to output	.\script.ps1 > script.log
>>	Appends all success stream data to output	.\script.ps1 >> script.log
n>&1	Redirects a specified stream (n) to output	.\script.ps1 3>&1 script.log

Note:

• 3>&1 – is for warning redirection
• 2>&1 – is for error redirection

6. Split and Join Operator

This PowerShell operator used to redirect the output of one command as the input to another command.’

Operator	Description	Example
-split	Splits a string into to substring based on a delimiter	-split “one two three four”
	Splits string with a specified delimiter	“Lastname:FirstName:Address” -split “:”
-join	Joins given strings to a single string	-join “a”, “b”, “c”

7. Type Operators

Type operators tell whether the given object is an instance of a specified .NET type.

Operator	Description	Example
-is	Compares instance of the specified .NET type and return True if equal.	32 -is “int”
-isNot	Compares the instance of specified .NET and return False if not equal.	32 -isNot “int”
-as	Converts the given value to the specified type	“12/31/07” -as [DateTime]

8. Unary Operators

These are the quick operators for increment and decrement in PowerShell. Mostly used on iteration.

Operator	Description	Example
++	Increments value by 1and assign back	$a = 9 $a++
—	Decrement value by 1 and assign back	$a = 9 $a–

9. Special Operators

PowerShell Special operators have specific use cases that do not fit in any other group.

Operator	Description	Example
@( )	Display the result of one or more statements as a list.	@(Get-WmiObject win32_logicalDisk)
&	Runs a command, script or block.	$c = “get-executionpolicy” & $c
[ ]	Converts object to specified type	[int64]$a = 34
,	Comma creates an array.	$myArray = 1,2,3
-f	Format operator, formats string by format methods	“{0} {1,-10} {2:N}” -f 1,”hello”,[math]::pi
..	Generates a range	‘a’..’f’

Recommended Articles

This has been a guide to PowerShell Operators. Here we have discussed the basic concept along with various types of PowerShell Operators in detail. You can also go through our other suggested articles to learn more –

1. Uses Of Powershell
2. Windows Operators
3. C Operators
4. MySQL Operators