Auto-Escape dynamic strings in Powershell

Question

I've got a string that will be dynamically generated from a 3rd party application

$somePath = "D:\some\path\name.of - my file [20_32_21].mp4"

I need to be able to verify this path in a function.

$somePath = "D:\some\path\name.of - my file [20_32_21].mp4"

Function ValidatePath{
    Param($path)
    if(Test-Path $path){
        Write-Host "Worked"
    } else {
        Write-Host "Didn't Work"
    }
}

ValidatePath $somePath 
# DIDN'T WORK

The problem is that it fails on the square brackets.

How can I automatically escape the square brackets in order to validate the file?

# Path needs to look like this
$somePath = "D:\some\path\name.of - my file ``[20_32_21``].mp4"
ValidatePath $somePath 
# WORKED!!!

Bill_Stewart · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-11 18:40:25Z

5

Use -LiteralPath instead of -Path; e.g.:

if ( test-path -literalpath $path ) {
  ....
}

Bill

answered Mar 11, 2013 at 18:40

Bill_Stewart

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1 Comment

Chase Florell Over a year ago

Simple and beautiful. Some of the semantics of PS seem elusive until you actually see it. I didn't know about that bit.

Adil Hindistan · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-11 18:42:56Z

0

Can you try using "test-path -literalpath $path" ?

answered Mar 11, 2013 at 18:42

Adil Hindistan

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