Scripts can make decisions. How? By using a concept called conditional logic. This concept is important to understand clearly when writing PowerShell scripts.

When you write PowerShell scripts, you do so with a specific task or tasks in mind. But, an operation can have more than one possible action based on one or more conditions. This situation is where the PowerShell If-Else construct comes in.

In this article, you will learn what the PowerShell If-Else construct is, understand its syntax and how it works. You will also learn from the examples some of the different ways that you can use PowerShell If-Else to add conditional logic handling in your scripts.

Understanding the PowerShell If-Else Syntax

The PowerShell If-Else construct is used to evaluate one or more conditions. Below you’ll see the If statement syntax.

if (<test1>) {<statement list 1>} [elseif (<test2>) {<statement list 2>}] [else {<statement list 3>}]

As you can see from the syntax above, each test is enclosed in a parenthesis () . Tests can make use of different operators such as comparison operators and logical operators,

The statement lists contain the code intended to run if the result of the test is true.

Then, there are three possible statements in an If statement group. These are the IF, ELSEIF, and ELSE statements.

The If statement contains the first test to evaluate, followed by the first statement list enclosed inside the curly brackets {} . In a PowerShell If statement group, the If statement is the only statement that is required to be present.

statement contains the first test to evaluate, followed by the first statement list enclosed inside the curly brackets . In a PowerShell If statement group, the If statement is the only statement that is required to be present. The ElseIf statement is where additional conditions are specified. You can add multiple ElseIf statements when there are multiple tests required. These conditions will be evaluated sequentially.

statement is where additional conditions are specified. You can add multiple ElseIf statements when there are multiple tests required. These conditions will be evaluated sequentially. The Else statement does not accept any condition. The statement list in this statement contains the code to run if all the prior conditions tested are false.

Understanding the PowerShell If-Else Logic Flow

To further understand how the PowerShell If-Else works, you need to familiarize yourself with its logic flow. The diagram below illustrates the basic flow of the PowerShell If-Else.

PowerShell If-Else Logic Flow

To further explain the diagram, when the If statement is run, PowerShell performs the following.

When the If statement is run, PowerShell evaluates the condition in Test 1.

If the result of Test 1 returns true, the code inside the If statement list will run, then PowerShell exits the If statement.

If the result of Test 1 returns false, PowerShell continues to evaluate the condition (Test n) in the next ElseIf statement.

If the result of Test n returns false, PowerShell continues to evaluate the condition (Test n) in the next ElseIf statement, if another ElseIf statement exists -OR-

If the result of Test n returns false, the code in the Else statement runs. Then, PowerShell will exit the If statement -OR-

If the result of Test n returns true, the code in the ElseIf statement runs. Then, PowerShell will exit the If statement.

Using the PowerShell If-Else Statement

The next sections are several examples of how to use the PowerShell If-Else statement when writing scripts. The techniques you will learn can guide you in using the If statement should you encounter a real-life situation that requires its use.

Single If-Else Condition

Starting with the most basic is the single If statement. A single if statement is used when there’s only one condition to test.

The example below tests whether the value of the $num variable is greater than 10. If the result is true, then the result saying "$num is greater than 10" will be displayed on the screen. If the result is false, PowerShell does nothing because there is only one condition to test.

$num = 11 if ($num -gt 10) { "$num is greater than 10" }

Pasting the code above into PowerShell will give you the result shown below.

Single If Condition Example

Now, if you want to add a default “fallback” action rather than just letting PowerShell do nothing when the test result is false, you can add the Else statement.

In the example below, the code in the Else statement will run if the value of the $num variable is NOT greater than 10.

$num = 9 if ($num -gt 10) { "$num is greater than 10" } else { "$num is NOT greater than 10" }

Running the modified code in PowerShell gives you the output shown below.

Single If condition

Starting with PowerShell 7.0, a new syntax for the If statement has been introduced using a ternary operator. Single If statements can make good use of this new syntax.

Using the same example above, this is how the code would look like with the ternary operator.

$num = 11 $num -gt 10 ? "$num is greater than 10" : "$num is NOT greater than 10"

If statement syntax using ternary operator

Multiple If-Else Conditions with ElseIf

When there are multiple conditions to be evaluated, adding one or more ElseIf statements is needed. Each ElseIf statement contains the test expression and its own code to run.

The script below, when executed, will keep on prompting for a fruit name until the CTRL+C keystroke is issued, or the user inputs the letter “ X “.

Then, the If statement will go through each condition in sequence until a match is found. If the input did not match any of the conditions, the code inside the Else statement would be executed.

While ($fruit -ne "X") { $fruit = Read-Host "Name that fruit" if ($fruit -eq 'Apple') { 'I have an Apple' } elseif ($fruit -eq 'Banana') { 'I have a Banana' } elseif ($fruit -eq 'Orange') { 'I have an Orange' } else { 'Sorry, that fruit is not in the list' } }

Below is the demonstration of how the script above behaves when running in PowerShell.

Multiple If-Else conditions

Reporting Free Disk Space Status

Free disk space reporting is one task that is common for system admins. The usual way of reporting the space information of fixed disks on a Windows machine revolves around the code below.

Get-CimInstance -ClassName CIM_LogicalDisk | Where-Object {$_.DriveType -eq 3}

The information that the code above will return would look something like the one shown in this next screenshot.

Plain disk space information report

As you can see, the output above shows that drive letter and the free space values, along with other properties. While the output above is fine, it is not intuitive because the way the information is presented does not indicate whether the disk space is in a critical or warning state or normal.

Using the PowerShell If-Else statement, a more intuitive output can be achieved by adding conditions to check if the free space is over or below certain thresholds. And these thresholds will define the status of the free disk space.

The example script below performs the following:

Using the value of the variable $Critical , define the threshold to which the percent of free space will be tagged as critical .

, define the threshold to which the percent of free space will be tagged as . Using the value of the variable $Warning , define the threshold to which the percent of free space will be tagged as warning .

, define the threshold to which the percent of free space will be tagged as . Get all fixed disk information from the local machine

Loop through all the disk information to determine free space and tag its status. If the free space percentage is higher than the value of the $Warning variable, the disk space status is tagged as normal . If the free space percentage is higher than the value of the $Critical variable, the disk space status is tagged as warning . If the free space percentage is less than or equal to the value of the $Critical variable, the disk space status is tagged as critical .

Compose the object properties 'Drive Letter' , 'Drive Name' , 'Total Space (GB)' , 'Free Space (GB)' , 'Free Space (%)' , and 'Status' .

, , , , , and . Return the final report

Copy the code below and save the script with the filename Get-DiskSpace.ps1 . Do not forget to change the values of the $Critical and $Warning variables if you want to test with different thresholds.

# Define thresholds in percentage $Critical = 20 $Warning = 70 # Get all Fixed Disk information $diskObj = Get-CimInstance -ClassName CIM_LogicalDisk | Where-Object { $_.DriveType -eq 3 } # Initialize an empty array that will hold the final results $finalReport = @() # Iterate each disk information $diskObj.foreach( { # Calculate the free space percentage $percentFree = [int](($_.FreeSpace / $_.Size) * 100) # Determine the "Status" if ($percentFree -gt $Warning) { $Status = 'Normal' } elseif ($percentFree -gt $Critical) { $Status = 'Warning' } elseif ($percentFree -le $Critical) { $Status = 'Critical' } # Compose the properties of the object to add to the report $tempObj = [ordered]@{ 'Drive Letter' = $_.DeviceID 'Drive Name' = $_.VolumeName 'Total Space (GB)' = [int]($_.Size / 1gb) 'Free Space (GB)' = [int]($_.FreeSpace / 1gb) 'Free Space (%)' = "{0}{1}" -f [int]$percentFree, '%' 'Status' = $Status } # Add the object to the final report $finalReport += New-Object psobject -property $tempObj } ) return $finalReport

Once the script is saved, test it by calling its name in PowerShell. Below is the sample demonstration of how this script works.

Free Disk Space Status Command Output

As you can see from the output, the status for each disk is determined by the free disk space percentage, which was the result of using multiple conditions with PowerShell If-Else.

Multiple and Nested If-Else

Inside the If-Else statement can be another set of If-Else statements, or as it is simply called – Nested If-Else. The nested If-Else statement is commonly used if the inner If-Else depends on the result of the operation in the outer If-Else.

Using multiple and nested If-Else statements can be quite confusing. The key point is to remember the scaffold placement and make sure that you indent your code. Indenting your code will help you easily recognize and separate your If-Else statements.

The example script below shows how multiple and nested If-Else can be dependent on the result of each other. The logic of the code below is as follows.

If the $SendEmail is $false , the script will do nothing and exit.

is , the script will do nothing and exit. If the $SendEmail is $true , then the $From and $To variables must not be empty or null. Otherwise, the $abortFlag will be set to 1.

is , then the and variables must not be empty or null. Otherwise, the will be set to 1. If the $SendEmail is $true and the $CCEnabled is $true , then the $CC variable must not be empty or null. Otherwise, the $abortFlag will be set to 1.

is and the is , then the variable must not be empty or null. Otherwise, the will be set to 1. If the $SendEmail is $true and the $BCCEnabled is $true , then the $BCC variable must not be empty or null. Otherwise, the $abortFlag will be set to 1.

is and the is , then the variable must not be empty or null. Otherwise, the will be set to 1. If the $abortFlag value is 1, the script will exit at this point and will not continue.

value is 1, the script will exit at this point and will not continue. If the $abortFlag value is 0, the script continues until the end.

Copy the code below and save it as Send-MyMail.ps1 . Do not change any values yet.

$SendEmail = $true $From = "" $To = "" $CCEnabled = $true $CC = "" $BCCEnabled = $true $BCC = "" $abortFlag = 0 if ($SendEmail) { if (!$From) { Write-Host "[From] is missing" -ForegroundColor Red $abortFlag = 1 } if (!$To) { Write-Host "[To] is missing" -ForegroundColor Red $abortFlag = 1 } if ($CCEnabled) { if (!$CC) { Write-Host "[CC] is missing" -ForegroundColor Red $abortFlag = 1 } } if ($BCCEnabled) { if (!$BCC) { Write-Host "[BCC] is missing" -ForegroundColor Red $abortFlag = 1 } } if ($abortFlag -eq 1) { Write-Host "The abort flag has been tripped. Exit script." -ForegroundColor Red break } else { Write-Host "Your email will be sent from this address $From" -ForegroundColor Green Write-Host "And will be sent to the following people:" -ForegroundColor Green Write-Host "To: $To" -ForegroundColor Green if ($CCEnabled -and $CC) { Write-Host "CC: $CC" -ForegroundColor Green } if ($BCCEnabled -and $BCC) { Write-Host "BCC: $BCC" -ForegroundColor Green } } }

Once the file is saved, run it in PowerShell as shown below. The demonstration below shows the result of the script when the values of the variables are unchanged.

Nested If-Else example

Next, edit the script and update all the variables properly like this snippet below.

After editing the variables, save the script, and run it again. It should show you the same result, as seen below.

Another nested If-else example

Now, modify the variables and try different combinations to test how the nested If-Else will be affected. Modifying and testing on your own would help you understand the logic further.

Summary

In this article, you learned about the conditional logic construct – the PowerShell If-Else construct. Using the If-Else statement allows scripters to formulate conditional logic and direct their scripts’ actions based on testing results.

With the examples shown in this article, you should have learned ways and techniques on how to use the If-Else statement when creating a decision-driven code. If-Else can be simple using a single condition and gets more complex while you dig deeper into the nested If-Else statements.

What do you think of the If-Else statement? Is this something that you think you would be using more and more after reading this article? What other purposes can you think of where you can apply the knowledge you’ve acquired here?

Further Reading