Why does PowerShell return a new line?

Question

I've recently broken into some of the subtler nuances of PowerShell, and noticed something I cannot avoid involving the return of a new line at the start of a string using this mundane function...

Function Why() {
    ""
    return "Well I tried."
}

This returns "\r\nWell I tried".

Write-Host "Starting test."
$theBigQuestion= Why
Write-Host $theBigQuestion
Write-Host "Ending test."

This will output the following:

Starting test.

Well I tried.
 Well I tried.
Ending test.

Now, this appears PowerShell is concatenating one output with another. But... why? What makes it think that I wanted the blank line to be part of the return statement? I (perhaps erroneously) like to use lines like this as shorthand, or to examine variables more closely for debugging purposes.

Related: Function return value in PowerShell

what is the `""` doing in the function? that is what echoing the blank line `\r\n` — bansi, Jul 29 '14 at 16:43
@bansi `""` was originally echoing a blank line to the console. It's a bad habit of mine. I know the "what", but I'm trying to figure out the "why". — , Jul 29 '14 at 16:47
Which version of powershell is this? I do not see a blank line or "Well I tried." printed twice in 4.0. — Mike Zboray, Jul 29 '14 at 16:57
@mikez This is PowerShell 2.0... which may be causing the problem. — , Jul 29 '14 at 17:00
`get-help about_return`. Anything that is not captured in a function will get returned. use write-host and you won't have this problem — Cole9350, Jul 29 '14 at 17:40
I tried this on version 2.0 as well. I see the same output as 4.0. — Mike Zboray, Jul 29 '14 at 17:44

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 29 '14 at 17:17

This function:

Function Why() {
    ""
    return "Well I tried."
}

Is returning an array of two strings. The first string is an empty string and the second is "Well I tried.". When PowerShell displays an array of string it puts each string on a newline.

25> $r = why
26> $r.GetType()

IsPublic IsSerial Name                                     BaseType
-------- -------- ----                                     --------
True     True     Object[]                                 System.Array

27> $r[0].Length
0

28> $r[1]
Well I tried.

...and here I was thinking it was returning a string the entire time. Derp.... thank you. — , Jul 29 '14 at 17:44

letthefireflieslive · Answer 2 · 2019-08-21T05:51:37.533

0

If you just want to have "Well I tried" to return, you can also use Out-Null or assign the unwanted return value to $null

Function Why() {
    Out-Null ""
    return "Well I tried."
}

or

Function Why() {
    $null = ""
    return "Well I tried."
}

or

Function Why() {
    "" > $null
    return "Well I tried."
}

edited Aug 21 '19 at 05:51

answered Aug 21 '19 at 05:43

letthefireflieslive

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Why does PowerShell return a new line?

2 Answers2