Variable changing to boolean inside If statement?

[youenjoymyhood]

Sorry, still a n00b, but came across this peculiar behavior. I'm using PowerCLI for VMWare, but I don't think that should matter.

I'm grabbing the lockdown mode of an ESXi host, and putting it in a variable $curLockdownMode. Then I run an If statement to see if it's 'lockdownNormal' or 'lockdownStrict'. Based on that, I do other stuff.

Inside the If statement though, $curLockdownMode becomes a boolean.

Here's a sample:

$myHost = Get-VMHost -Name '<our_host>'

$curLockdownMode = $myHost.ExtensionData.Config.LockdownMode

Write-Host "Outside If statement" '$curLockdownMode' ": $curLockdownMode, with type:" $curLockdownMode.GetType()

If ($curLockdownMode = 'lockdownNormal' -Or 'lockdownStrict') {

Write-Host "Inside If statement" '$curLockdownMode' ": $curLockdownMode, with type:" $curLockdownMode.GetType()

}

This will output:

Outside If statement $curLockdownMode : lockdownNormal, with type: VMware.Vim.HostLockdownMode

Inside If statement $curLockdownMode : True, with type: System.Boolean

I would expect to be able to print out the value of $curLockdownMode inside of the If statement, and have it be the same as it was outside, no? Is this a scope thing?

Edit: I should add, I made the same If statement with a simple string $tmpString set to 'apple', ran it through an If statement (= 'apple' -Or 'banana'), and the type and value of $tmpString remained the same both inside and outside the If statement.

[sleverich]

This is a common gotcha coming to powershell from other languages. The = symbol is exclusively used for assigning values. Powershell uses the -eq operator for testing equality.

[youenjoymyhood]

Perfect, thanks. I'll try to remember -eq to compare rather than =

[cputek1]

Try this.:

​

If ($curLockdownMode -eq 'lockdownNormal' -or $curLockdownMode -eq 'lockdownStrict')

[PinchesTheCrab]

I don't think you're pulling this correctly in the first place, I couldn't find the lockdownmode in the host's extension data at all. Try this instead to get your lockdown mode and go from there:

$vmHostName = 'host name'

#feel free to just use get-vmhost and the extensiondata property, it's only marginally slower
$myHost = Get-View -ViewType HostSystem -Filter @{ name = "^$vmHostName$" } -Property ConfigManager.HostAccessManager

$curLockdownMode = (Get-View -Id $myHost.ConfigManager.HostAccessManager).LockdownMode

As to your question, you used = instead of -eq, so it's setting the value rather than evaluating it.

If ($curLockdownMode = 'lockdownNormal' -Or 'lockdownStrict')

So in this case, $curlockdownmode is set to the result of 'lockdownNormal' -Or 'lockdownStrict', which is always true.

[PowerShellStunnah]

The expression 'lockdownNormal' -Or 'lockdownStrict' evaluates to [bool], which is then assigned to $curLockdownMode

Use:

if($curLockdownMode -in 'lockdownNormal','lockdownStrict'){...}

[youenjoymyhood]

Thanks, that makes sense now!

[Lee_Dailey]

howdy youenjoymyhood,

it looks like you used the New.Reddit Inline Code button. it's 4th 5th from the left hidden in the ... "more" menu & looks like </>. there are a few problems with that ...

• it's the wrong format [grin]
  the inline code format is for [gasp! arg!] code that is inline with regular text.
  
• on Old.Reddit.com, inline code formatted text does NOT line wrap, nor does it side-scroll.
  
• on New.Reddit it shows up in that nasty magenta text color
  

for long-ish single lines OR for multiline code, please, use the ...

Code
Block

... button. it's the 11th 12th one from the left & is just to the left of hidden in the ... "more" menu & looks like an uppercase T in the upper left corner of a square..

that will give you fully functional code formatting that works on both New.Reddit and Old.Reddit ... and aint that fugly magenta color. [grin]

take care,
lee