Small problem with (if) command in powershell

Question

First, let me show you the code

$url = Read-Host 'URL'
if ( $url -gt '.'){
    msg * "The title does not contain(.)"
}

The code should alert you that the site does not have a dot

But either way the code alerts me

The code does not give me any error

What do you mean with "has no dot"? Like "hostname" vs. "hostname.domain"? The -gt operator seems a little far off for string comparison (what do you expect from $url "greater than" '.'?). Finally, the line msg * "..." also looks fishy syntax wise. — Christian.K
– Christian.K, Commented Nov 8, 2021 at 12:58
@Christian.K - The msg * ... line is legit; it's invoking the msg.exe utility, which simply pops up a dialog box with the message text and an OK button. — Jeff Zeitlin
– Jeff Zeitlin, Commented Nov 8, 2021 at 13:00
@Jeff Thanks! To add to my previous comment, I would have expected something along the lines of if (!$url.Contains('.')) { msg * "Does not contain a dot" }. — Christian.K
– Christian.K, Commented Nov 8, 2021 at 13:00
! $url.Contains('.') is propably the most efficient way. For completeness, using PowerShell operators: $url -notlike '*.*' — zett42
– zett42, Commented Nov 8, 2021 at 13:07

Jeff Zeitlin · Accepted Answer · 2021-11-08 13:11:30Z

2

The -gt operator does a case-insensitive lexical comparison, and where non-letters are involved, it uses case-folded Unicode ordering. The . is ordered before any of the letters, so virtually any URL, with or without a dot, will be lexically greater than the single dot you are comparing against.

If you want to test whether a string contains a dot, you should most likely be using the -match or -notmatch operators; note that this uses regular expressions.

$url = Read-Host 'URL'
if ( $url -notmatch '\.'){
    msg * "The title does not contain(.)"
}

answered Nov 8, 2021 at 13:11

Jeff Zeitlin

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2 Comments

ahmed Over a year ago

Thank you, you worked with me, but Can you make the message appear if (.) is not found twice

Jeff Zeitlin Over a year ago

I would have to verify the regular expression, and I don't quite have time right now, but I think you would want to match (or notmatch) against \..*\.

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