Mysterious quote parsing in cmd.exe for powershell.exe

Question

Look at this cmd.exe command: powershell.exe -NonInteractive -NoProfile -Command "&(""{0}{1}""-f 'ec','ho') hello" powershell reports error:

C:\Users\Administrator>powershell.exe -NonInteractive -NoProfile -Command "&(""{0}{1}""-f 'ec','ho') hello"
The string is missing the terminator: ".
    + CategoryInfo          : ParserError: (:) [], ParentContainsErrorRecordException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : TerminatorExpectedAtEndOfString

Seems that a " terminator is missing? But wrote a C program that outputs argv line by line, to see what the arguments really expanded to:

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int wmain(int argc, wchar_t* argv[])
{
    for (int i = 0; i < argc; i++) {
        wcout << i << L":" << argv[i] << endl;
    }
}

C:\Users\Administrator\source\repos\ArgvDemo\x64\Debug>.\ArgvDemo.exe powershell.exe -NonInteractive -NoProfile -Command "&(""{0}{1}""-f 'ec','ho') hello"
0:.\ArgvDemo.exe
1:powershell.exe
2:-NonInteractive
3:-NoProfile
4:-Command
5:&("{0}{1}"-f 'ec','ho') hello

The last argument parsed just fine!
And the powershell command &("{0}{1}"-f 'ec','ho') hello runs fine:

PS C:\Users\Administrator> &("{0}{1}"-f 'ec','ho') hello
hello

And actually if I add an extra " to the command in question:

powershell.exe -NonInteractive -NoProfile -Command "&(""{0}{1}""-f 'ec','ho') hello"
                                                  Add " here   ^

powershell.exe -NonInteractive -NoProfile -Command "&(""{0}{1}"""-f 'ec','ho') hello"

It runs fine:

C:\Users\Administrator\source\repos\ArgvDemo\x64\Debug>powershell.exe -NonInteractive -NoProfile -Command "&(""{0}{1}"""-f 'ec','ho') hello"
hello

But if I put it in my C program:

C:\Users\Administrator\source\repos\ArgvDemo\x64\Debug>.\ArgvDemo.exe powershell.exe -NonInteractive -NoProfile -Command "&(""{0}{1}"""-f 'ec','ho') hello"
0:.\ArgvDemo.exe
1:powershell.exe
2:-NonInteractive
3:-NoProfile
4:-Command
5:&("{0}{1}"-f
6:'ec','ho')
7:hello

What happened?

What I understand is that double quote "" inside a pair of quote " will be parsed to a single quote: "arg: ""quote""!" = arg: "quote"!. But is it really the case?

mklement0 · Accepted Answer · 2025-06-19 17:06:46Z

Preface:

I am addressing the question as asked, namely how to escape embedded " chars., i.e. double quotes.
- Situationally, if you're dealing with string values to used verbatim (literally), it is easier to use embedded ', i.e. single quotes, which doesn't require any escaping, as shown in Alex' answer.
- However, if you do need string interpolation in your PowerShell code or you're passing a file path that may contain spaces via an (environment) variable, "..." quoting is called for.
See the about_Quoting_Rules help topic for the differences between "..." (expandable) and '...' (verbatim) strings in PowerShell.

Using "" to escape double quotes embedded in an overall "..."-enclosed -Command PowerShell CLI argument only works in PowerShell (Core) 7, i.e. only with pwsh.exe

In Windows PowerShell (the legacy, ships-with-Windows, Windows-only edition of PowerShell whose latest and last version is 5.1), whose CLI is powershell.exe, you must use \" or """ [sic]; applied to your command, using \":

powershell.exe -NoProfile -Command "& (\"{0}{1}\"-f 'ec','ho') hello"

Note that both forms of escaping can run afoul of cmd.exe's own up-front parsing, because cmd.exe doesn't itself recognize escaped " chars.; e.g.:

:: FAILS, because cmd.exe sees the & char. as UNESCAPED and therefore as its
:: statement sequencing operator.
powershell.exe -NonInteractive -NoProfile -Command " \"hi & bye\" "

:: DITTO
powershell.exe -NonInteractive -NoProfile -Command " """hi & bye""" "

To prevent that, use \"" [sic] (subject to whitespace normalization) or "^"" [sic] (preserves whitespace, but doesn't work in for /f statements):

:: With \""
:: OK, but normalizes whitespace
powershell.exe -NonInteractive -NoProfile -Command " \""hi   &   bye\"" "

:: With "^""
:: OK, but doesn't work with `for /f`
powershell.exe -NonInteractive -NoProfile -Command " "^""hi   &   bye"^"" "

For more information, see this answer.
In PowerShell (Core) 7 (which supports \"-escaping too), escaping as "" works robustly in all scenarios (on Windows).

Alex · Accepted Answer · 2025-06-19 16:12:05Z

0

Try this, issue stems from the quotes:

powershell.exe -NonInteractive -NoProfile -Command "& (('{0}{1}' -f 'ec','ho'))" hello

answered Jun 19 at 16:12

Alex

2,3371 gold badge28 silver badges38 bronze badges

2 Comments

js2010 Jun 19 at 18:47

You're missing hello at the end of the command.

Alex Jul 1 at 20:41

it's right there.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Mysterious quote parsing in cmd.exe for powershell.exe

2 Answers 2

Comments

2 Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Comments

2 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related