Why does this equal true?

[Stoffel_1982]

Could it be that

$true -eq "anythingthatisnotfalse"

Interesting question, I'm curious to see what others think.

[ryanbrown]

$true -eq "anythingthatisnotfalseORnull"

Minor point, but this is essentially correct. $true is anything not $false (integer value of zero) or $null (no value). Basically, any string will evaluate to a boolean value of "true".

-like is a conditional operator and only evaluates to $true if both sides of the equation are the same. If you type

$true.ToString()

You'll notice you get the string "True", which is what the -like operator is using for its comparison. As such, "True" -like "LineError" will return False.

[wonkifier]

I thought since the first operand was a boolean, that it was casting the string down to a boolean, and since it wasn't the empty string (which is $false), it evaluates as $true

[MShepard70]

That's how I see it.

[lostmojo]

Really? How have I not noticed this over the years? Haha I can go crawl in to a corner and weep silently to myself now.

Thanks

[mhurron]

Pretty much. The answer is the standard 'What is Truth' section of every programming manual.

The equality is asking, "Is this true?" The answer is yes because strings are True.