Powershell Test-Path and If statement, executes both if and else statements

Question

I'm doing a few small school assignments, but our teacher is doing a pretty bad job in explaining stuff, so I've basically just been googling watching videos etc.

But I have to make a script that copies a file from one path to another, and it has to give an error if the file doesn't exist. I've written this piece of code:

$testpath = Test-Path $destinationfolder
$startfolder = "C:\Desktop\Destination1\test.txt\"
$destinationfolder = "C:\Desktop\Destination2\"

If ($testpath -eq $true) {Copy-Item $startfolder -Destination $destinationfolder}
Else {Write-Host "Error file does not exist!"}

My problem is that when it successfully copies the file, it still prints out the error. Its almost like it completely ignores the if and else statements. Can someone please, explain to me what i'm doing wrong, so i can correct it and hopefully learn something today? :)

Karolina Ochlik · Accepted Answer · 2021-06-08 09:47:02Z

I couldn't replicate the idea when the script copies the file AND executes else code block. But:

$testpath = Test-Path $destinationfolder 
$startfolder = "C:\Desktop\Destination1\test.txt\"
$destinationfolder = "C:\Desktop\Destination2\"

You are checking path (line 1) BEFORE the path is defined (line 3). That's why (when executed in new shell session) it will always be false. There is no need to put "\" character at the end of path.

You can write the same thing like this:

#Setting variables
$destinationFolder = "C:\Desktop\Destination2"
$startfolder = "C:\Desktop\Destination1\test.txt"

#Checking if destination folder exists
if (Test-Path $destinationFolder) {
    Copy-Item $startfolder -Destination $destinationFolder 
}
else {
    Write-Host "Directory $destinationFolder does not exist!"
}

Or if you want script to be idempotent (behave exactly the same way every time) it can look like this:

$destinationFolder = "C:\Desktop\Destination2"
$file = "C:\Desktop\Destination1\test.txt"

If (!(Test-Path $destinationFolder)) {
    #Check if destinationFolder  is NOT present and if it's not - create it
    Write-Host "Directory $destinationFolder does not exist!"
    New-Item $destinationFolder -ItemType Directory
}

#Will always copy, because destination folder is present
Copy-Item $file -Destination $destinationFolder

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