Best way to check if an PowerShell Object exist?

Question

I am looking for the best way to check if a Com Object exists.

Here is the code that I have; I\'d like to improve the last line:

$ie = New-Object -Co         


        

Answer 1

What all of these answers do not highlight is that when comparing a value to $null, you have to put $null on the left-hand side, otherwise you may get into trouble when comparing with a collection-type value. See: https://github.com/nightroman/PowerShellTraps/blob/master/Basic/Comparison-operators-with-collections/looks-like-object-is-null.ps1

$value = @(1, $null, 2, $null)
if ($value -eq $null) {
    Write-Host "$value is $null"
}

The above block is (unfortunately) executed. What's even more interesting is that in Powershell a $value can be both $null and not $null:

$value = @(1, $null, 2, $null)
if (($value -eq $null) -and ($value -ne $null)) {
    Write-Host "$value is both $null and not $null"
}

So it is important to put $null on the left-hand side to make these comparisons work with collections:

$value = @(1, $null, 2, $null)
if (($null -eq $value) -and ($null -ne $value)) {
    Write-Host "$value is both $null and not $null"
}

I guess this shows yet again the power of Powershell !