Number 'e' notation string comparison errors in PowerShell

Question

The following code prints It's greater than 1:

$value = "1.9964672441318374e-005"
If ($value -ge 1)
{
    Write-Host "It's greater than 1"
}
Else
{
    Write-Host "Smaller than 1"
}

I understand that this can be corrected by casting $value to a [double]. I was wondering if anyone else encountered this inconsistent behavior. I say inconsistent because for decimal formatted strings the comparison yields the correct output. Any thoughts?

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2018-06-19 20:18:47Z

2

The quotes make the variable be treated as a string:

PS> $v=1.1e3
PS> $v |get-member #-> TypeName : System.Double     

PS> $v="1.1e3"
PS> $v |get-member #-> TypeName : System.String

If you remove the quotes on in your original code, you'll find that the comparison works the way that you would expect.

edited Jun 19, 2018 at 20:18

Peter Mortensen

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answered Apr 30, 2015 at 9:13

Loïc MICHEL

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