Passing command line arguments to node Cross Platform using different CLI

Question

I'm passing an optional argument to a custom node script via the CLI as follows:

$ node myscript.js --sizes 10,20,30

myscript.js utilizes process.argv to capture the --sizes list as follows:

if (process.argv.indexOf('--sizes') !== -1) {
    var sizeArgs = process.argv[process.argv.indexOf('--sizes') + 1];
    console.log(sizeArgs); //--> 10,20,30
    // ...
    // using sizeArgs.split(',') later to create an array: ['10','20','30']
    // plus some other logic to validate values are numbers etc etc.
}

Desired outcome is that console.log prints the string 10,20,30 and that's what correctly happens when running the command (the one initially shown above) via:

• Mac OS - using either Terminal or iTerm
• Mac OSX - using either Terminal or iTerm
• Windows - using Command Prompt (cmd.exe)

---

Issue

When running the same command via Powershell on Windows console.log(sizeArgs) prints 10 only.

So clearly the comma in the string 10,20,30 is somehow being interpreted as another argument, as the following test reveals:

// print process.argv
process.argv.forEach(function (val, index, array) {
    console.log(index + ': ' + val);
});

Powershell prints:

...

2: --sizes

3: 10

4: 20

5: 30

For environments where the desired outcome is met the following prints:

...

2: --sizes

3: 10,20,30

---

Help

How can this be achieved cross platform considering the quirk in Powershell. Ultimately I need to obtain an array of sizes.

The reason I have chosen to use a comma [,] as a separator for the --sizes string is because another optional argument may also be provided (--outdir which accepts a filepath as a string).

NOTE: I'm aware there are several package solutions yargs, args etc, etc, (which may or may not resolve the Powershell issue), however, I'm trying to avoid the additional dependency at this stage.

Answer 1

Resolved this issue by ensuring --sizes value(s) 10,20,30 are put inside double quotes.

As suggested in this answer.

Therefore a cross platform way to pass an argument to node that includes a comma(s) is as follows:

$ node myscript.js --sizes "10,20,30"

---

Retest

Now the test used in the original question prints as follows across all platforms/environments tested:

...

2: --sizes

3: 10,20,30