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about_Escape_Characters



This is the built-in help made by Microsoft for the document 'about_Escape_Characters', in PowerShell version 4 - as retrieved from Windows version 'Microsoft Windows 8.1 Enterprise' PowerShell help files on 2016-06-24.

For PowerShell version 3 and up, where you have Update-Help, this command was run just before creating the web pages from the help files.

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TOPIC
about_Escape_Characters

SHORT DESCRIPTION
Introduces the escape character in Windows PowerShell and explains
its effect.

LONG DESCRIPTION
Escape characters are used to assign a special interpretation to
the characters that follow it.

In Windows PowerShell, the escape character is the backtick (`), also
called the grave accent (ASCII 96). The escape character can be used
to indicate a literal, to indicate line continuation, and to indicate
special characters.

In a call to another program, instead of using escape characters
to prevent Windows PowerShell from misinterpreting program arguments,
you can use the stop-parsing symbol (--%). The stop-parsing symbol
is introduced in Windows PowerShell 3.0.


ESCAPING A VARIABLE
When an escape character precedes a variable, it prevents a value from
being substituted for the variable.

For example:

PS C:\>$a = 5
PS C:\>"The value is stored in $a."
The value is stored in 5.

PS C:\>$a = 5
PS C:\>"The value is stored in `$a."
The value is stored in $a.

ESCAPING QUOTATION MARKS

When an escape character precedes a
double quotation mark, Windows PowerShell interprets the double quotation
mark as a character, not as a string delimiter.

PS C:\> "Use quotation marks (") to indicate a string."
Unexpected token ')' in expression or statement.
At line:1 char:25
+ "Use quotation marks (") <<<< to indicate a string."

PS C:\> "Use quotation marks (`") to indicate a string."
Use quotation marks (") to indicate a string.


USING LINE CONTINUATION

The escape character tells Windows PowerShell that the command continues
on the next line.

For example:

PS C:\> Get-Process `
>> PowerShell

Handles NPM(K) PM(K) WS(K) VM(M) CPU(s) Id ProcessName
------- ------ ----- ----- ----- ------ -- -----------
340 8 34556 31864 149 0.98 2036 PowerShell


USING SPECIAL CHARACTERS

When used within quotation marks, the escape character indicates a
special character that provides instructions to the command parser.

The following special characters are recognized by Windows PowerShell:

`0 Null
`a Alert
`b Backspace
`f Form feed
`n New line
`r Carriage return
`t Horizontal tab
`v Vertical tab

For example:

PS C:\> "12345678123456781`nCol1`tColumn2`tCol3"
12345678123456781
Col1 Column2 Col3

For more information, type:
Get-Help about_Special_Characters


STOP-PARSING SYMBOL
When calling other programs, you can use the stop-parsing
symbol (--%) to prevent Windows PowerShell from generating
errors or misinterpreting program arguments. The stop-parsing
symbol is an alternative to using escape characters in program
calls. It is introduced in Windows PowerShell 3.0.

For example, the following command uses the stop-parsing
symbol in an Icacls command:

icacls X:\VMS --% /grant Dom\HVAdmin:(CI)(OI)F

For more information about the stop-parsing symbol,
see about_Parsing.


SEE ALSO
about_Quoting_Rules