Powershell while loop cannot be broken

Question

I have a while loop in powershell that checks for input

:checker while($choice1 = read-host "Do you want to continue? [Y/N/C]"){
    switch ($choice1){
        "N"{Echo Ok; $temporary = "Exit"; break :checker}
        "Y"{Echo Ok; $temporary = "Continue"; break :checker}
        "C"{Echo Ok; $temporary = "Cancel"; break :checker}
        default{"Invalid input"}
    }
}

However, no matter the input, the while loop never gets broken. Is there an issue with my code, or is there a different way to do this that will ensure the correct things to happen?

Ovinus Real · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-01 20:15:46Z

2

Instead of break :checker, you should have break checker to break out to the outermost loop. It's just breaking out of the switch statement currently.

answered Jun 1, 2020 at 20:15

Ovinus Real

7615 silver badges11 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

mklement0 Over a year ago

Nicely done; it's unfortunate that optionally using : before the label name isn't supported (as of PowerShell 7.0); this GitHub suggestion aims to change that.

Lee_Dailey · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-01 20:37:11Z

0

here is a variant on the idea. it works by setting $Choice to the user input ... and, if the input is not valid, setting $Choice to a blank string so that the while loop will continue.

i removed the call to ok since you didn't provide that code. [grin]

the code ...

$Choice = ''
while ([string]::IsNullOrEmpty($Choice))
    {
    $Choice = Read-Host 'Do you want to continue? [Y/N/C] '
    switch ($Choice)
        {
        "N"{$temporary = "Exit"; break}
        "Y"{$temporary = "Continue"; break}
        "C"{$temporary = "Cancel"; break}
        default{$Choice = ''; "Invalid input"}
        }
    }

$Choice
$Temporary

output ...

Do you want to continue? [Y/N/C] : t
Invalid input
Do you want to continue? [Y/N/C] : y
y
Continue

answered Jun 1, 2020 at 20:37

Lee_Dailey

7,5292 gold badges25 silver badges27 bronze badges

3 Comments

Nationalism Over a year ago

Oops, I meant to do echo Ok not ok my bad! I'll fix that in the latest edit

Lee_Dailey Over a year ago

@Asian - that is an easy-to-make error. [grin] does my code work as a different way that you asked for?

Lee_Dailey Over a year ago

glad to hear that it works ... & you are most welcome! [grin]

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Powershell while loop cannot be broken

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

3 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

3 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related