Passing empty arguments to executables using powershell

Question

Powershell seems to drop empty string arguments when passed to a command. I have this code

PS D:\> $b.name = "foo bar"
PS D:\> ./echoargs $b.name
Arg 0 is D:\echoargs.exe
Arg 1 is foo bar
PS D:\> $b.name = ""
PS D:\> ./echoargs $b.name
Arg 0 is D:\echoargs.exe

You can assume that $b has a 'name' member. How can i pass this as an argument to the exe even when the value is an empty string. I've tried using the call operator with no success.

score 12 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 24 '12 at 15:51

If you want an empty string to appear try escaped quotes around the argument like so:

PS> $b = [psobject]@{name = ''}
PS> echoargs `"$($b.Name)`"
Arg 0 is <>

Command line:
"C:\Users\Keith\Pscx\Trunk\Src\Pscx\bin\Release\Apps\EchoArgs.exe"  ""

Note that I tested this on V3 so I'm not sure if the behavior will be exactly the same on V2.

score 10 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 24 '12 at 11:49

10

Try to pass an empty single quote string enclosed in double quotes, or vice versa.

./echoargs $b.name, "''"

or

./echoargs $b.name, '""'

answered Apr 24 '12 at 11:49

Shay Levy

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I tested both methods in PS v5 and the first one didn't work, but the second one did: `./echoargs $b.name, '""'`. The comma between parameters did not appear to be necessary in my case. – goodman Mar 24 '17 at 13:20

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 07 '18 at 11:25

3

This should also work:

./echoargs [String]::Empty

answered Apr 07 '18 at 11:25

Sebastian Krysmanski

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Does not seem to work with PowerShell v5.1. – stackprotector May 05 '22 at 13:42

Passing empty arguments to executables using powershell

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