PowerShell - Call a function created in another function

Question

When I run this:

function Setup-One{

    function First-Function{
    Write-Host "First function!"
    }

    function Second-Function{
    Write-Host "Second function!"
    }
}
Setup-One

And than I call First-Function or Second-Function, PS says that they don't exist. What am I doing wrong?

Related: https://stackoverflow.com/q/68016859/45375 – mklement0 Jun 21 '21 at 12:35 — mklement0, Jun 21 '21 at 12:35

score 9 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 21 '21 at 11:26

9

Function definitions are scoped, meaning that they stop existing when you leave the scope in which they were defined.

Use the . dot-source operator when invoking Setup, thereby persisting the nested functions in the calling scope:

function Setup-One{

    function First-Function{
    Write-Host "First function!"
    }

    function Second-Function{
    Write-Host "Second function!"
    }
}
. Setup-One

# Now you can resolve First-Function/Second-Function
First-Function
Second-Function

See the about_Scopes help topic for moreinformation on scoping in PowerShell

answered Jun 21 '21 at 11:26

Mathias R. Jessen

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5

Alternatively, `function global:First-Function` inside `Setup-One` overrides the scope on a per-declaration basis (what's more convenient varies by how much you intend to expose). – Jeroen Mostert Jun 21 '21 at 11:31
1

@JeroenMostert feel free to add an answer, but I'm not going to suggest that :-) – Mathias R. Jessen Jun 21 '21 at 11:39
@MathiasR.Jessen Thank you very much bro – Dstr0 Jun 21 '21 at 16:20

PowerShell - Call a function created in another function

1 Answers1