The PowerShell escape character is the grave-accent(`)
The escape character can be used in three ways:
1) When used at the end of a line, it is a continuation character - so the command will continue on the next line.
2) To indicate that the next character following should be passed without substitution. For example $myVariable will normally be expanded to display the variables contents but `$myVariable will just be passed as $myVariable
3) When used inside quotation marks, the escape character indicates that the following character should be interpreted as a 'special' character.
Special characters
`0 Null `a Alert bell/beep `b Backspace `f Form feed `n New line `r Carriage return `t Horizontal tab `v Vertical tab `' Single quote `" Double quote
These special characters are used to format output on the screen. The default tab stop is 8 spaces.
The escaped quotes allow quotation marks to be displayed on screen, rather than being interpreted as the end of a string.
Examples
PS C:\> Write-Host "First Line `nSecond line First Line Second Line PS C:\> Write-Host "Header1`tHeader2 `nItem1`t123.45 Header1 Header2 Item1 Item2 PS C:\> "`a `a"
Quotation Marks
Either single or double quotes may be used to specify a literal string: "The world is everlasting"
Double-Quoted Strings (")
When you enclose a string in double quotation marks, any variable names in the string such as "$myVar" will be
replaced with the variable's value when the
command is processed.
Single-Quoted Strings (')
When you enclose a string in single quotation marks, any variable names in the string such as '$myVar' will appear exacly as typed when the command is processed. Expressions in single-quoted strings are not evaluated.
Often you will want to combine single and double quotes, in the example below the filename *is* expanded, because it is inside the outer double quotes:
"The file is: '$filename_with_spaces' "
$var = 45
"The value of " + '$var' + "is '$var'"
"The value of `$var is '$var'"
'he cried, not loud yet stentorian "Trot Canter Charge"'
"he cried, not loud yet stentorian 'Trot Canter Charge'"
"he cried, not loud yet stentorian ""Trot Canter Charge"""
Here-strings
A here-string is a
single-quoted or double-quoted string which can span multiple lines.
Expressions in single-quoted strings are not evaluated.
All the lines in a here-string are interpreted as strings, even though they are not enclosed in quotation marks.
$myHereString = @'
some text with "quotes" and variable names $printthis
some more text
'@
$anotherHereString = @"
The value of `$var is '$var'
some more text
"@
“Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be” - Thomas A Kempis
Related:
Pipelines - Pass objects down the pipeline
Variables - Powershell Variables (int, String)
