Escape characters when generating Powershell scripts using C#

Question

I use VS2010, C#, .NET 3.5 for generate Powershell scripts (ps1 files).

Then, it is required escape characters for Powershell.

Any suggestions about it for develop good method that escape characters?

  public static partial class StringExtensions
    {
        /*
        PowerShell Special Escape Sequences

        Escape Sequence         Special Character
        `n                      New line
        `r                      Carriage Return
        `t                      Tab
        `a                      Alert
        `b                      Backspace
        `"                      Double Quote
        `'                      Single Quote
        ``                      Back Quote
        `0                      Null
        */

        public static string FormatStringValueForPS(this string value)
        {
            if (value == null) return value;
            return value.Replace("\"", "`\"").Replace("'", "`'");
        }
    }

Usage:

var valueForPs1 = FormatStringValueForPS("My text with \"double quotes\". More Text");
var psString = "$value = \"" + valueForPs1  + "\";";

Richard · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-06 11:44:45Z

1

The other option would be to use a regex:

private static Regex CharactersToEscape = new Regex(@"['""]"); // Extend the character set as requird


public string EscapeForPowerShell(string input) {
  // $& is the characters that were matched
  return CharactersToEscape.Replace(input, "`$&");
}

Note: you don't need to escape backslashes: PowerShell does not use them as escape characters. This makes writing regexes somewhat easier.

edited Mar 6, 2013 at 11:44

answered Mar 6, 2013 at 11:26

Richard

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2 Comments

CB. Over a year ago

maybe the regex is "['\"]"? need to escape the extra "

Richard Over a year ago

@C.B. Note the use of a literal string (@"…"): you escape double quotes in a literal string by doubling them.

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