Null coalescing in powershell

Question

Is there a null coalescing operator in powershell?

I\'d like to be able to do these c# commands in powershell:

var s = myval ?? \"new value\";
var x         


        

Answer 1

This is only half an answer to the first half of the question, so a quarter answer if you will, but there is a much simpler alternative to the null coalescing operator provided the default value you want to use is actually the default value for the type:

string s = myval ?? "";

Can be written in Powershell as:

([string]myval)

Or

int d = myval ?? 0;

translates to Powershell:

([int]myval)

I found the first of these useful when processing an xml element that might not exist and which if it did exist might have unwanted whitespace round it:

$name = ([string]$row.td[0]).Trim()

The cast to string protects against the element being null and prevents any risk of Trim() failing.