I want to run the following command from the powershell window.
My-Command1 -f “firstline
secondline
thirdline”
I want to be able to copy and paste in a bunch of lines for the -f parameter - can this be done?
I tried copy and pasting but it didn’t work.
Yes, you can use and paste multi-line arguments, but only if provided as string literals, i.e with delimiters (quotes) - see the bottom section re pasting multi-line commands.
Important:
On Windows, if you use Ctrl-V to paste - rather than right-clicking - you can simplify the solutions below by typing both the opening and closing delimiter up front and then placing the cursor between them before pasting.
For the reasons discussed in GitHub issue #579 this does not work in the following cases, because these pasting methods use simulated typing:
In the simplest case, type the opening delimiter (" or, preferably, for literal content, '), then paste your multi-line value, then type the closing delimiter; e.g.:
Write-Output ' # <- paste here, then type ' to close the string
If there's a chance that the value you're pasting contains the same quote characters that you're using to delimit the string, use a here-string instead; e.g.:
Write-Output @' # <- Press ENTER, then paste,
# then press ENTER again, then type '@ to close the here-string
If you find yourself needing to paste multi-line values frequently, you can set up a custom PSReadLine key handler as follows:
# Define keyboard shortcut Alt-V to paste the current clipboard
# content as a verbatim here-string.
Set-PSReadLineKeyHandler 'alt+v' -ScriptBlock {
[Microsoft.PowerShell.PSConsoleReadLine]::Insert("@'`n`n'@")
foreach ($i in 1..3) { [Microsoft.PowerShell.PSConsoleReadLine]::BackwardChar() }
[Microsoft.PowerShell.PSConsoleReadLine]::Insert((Get-Clipboard -Raw))
foreach ($i in 1..3) { [Microsoft.PowerShell.PSConsoleReadLine]::ForwardChar() }
}
You can then use Alt-V to paste (multi-line) text currently on the clipboard as a verbatim here-string (customize the keyboard shortcut as needed).
Pasting multi-line PowerShell commands / code snippets:
It follows from the above:
On Windows, with Ctrl-V, you're free to paste arbitrary (but complete) code snippets and execute them.
On Unix-like platforms (and when you use right-clicking on Windows), in the absence of bracketed pasting, the snippet may be pasted as multiple commands, which can break:
As soon as a statement contained in the pasted text is a complete statement by itself, it is submitted.
A notable pitfall is that if an if statement's else branch is placed on its own line, the if branch is considered a complete statement and submitted first, causing a syntax error when the else branch is subsequently submitted; e.g.:
# Pasting this currently malfunctions, except on
# Windows with Ctrl-V
if ($true) {
'yup'
}
else {
'nah'
}
