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So let's go into the PowerShell console,

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and we'll look at how we can convert and format values.

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We'll look at base formatting of values first, then we'll

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cast values to a different type, and then we'll look at how

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we can cast using the AS operator.

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So we just talked about variables, so let's have a look

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at the practicalities of this. Well, first off,

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let's create a variable called variable1,

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and what we'll do is just add some specific numbers like so.

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If I want to view what's in the variable,

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then I can just obviously type variable.

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Now if I also declared a variable2, and maybe I just did a string

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value, so let's imagine it's a path to C:\Documents like so, I can

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then do variable2 and render that value.

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So nothing spectacular there.

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Those are just called regular basic variables that don't have any types.

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Now,

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if we were to change this and I wanted to make sure

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that the variable had a specific type,

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so if I say variable3 and I set that as an integer with a 0,

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then, of course, when I do variable3, it'll just return 10.

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Now what about if I change that and put the 10 in quotes like so?

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Is it going to return the same value?

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Yes, it does.

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It returns a 10.

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Now if we go one step further here and say Test Value and do the

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same thing, now you'll see it fails because it recognizes it as a

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text value or string value, and that's not allowed within a typed

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variable of type integer.

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Now,

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if we go a little bit further and say [string]$variable4 and

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then just say Test Value like so, then, of course,

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if I want to render that value, variable4, it works great.

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But if I change the value and get rid of the quotes and put a

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number 10, now notice what happens here.

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If I do variable4, it will render the number 10. So string

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will effectively take any kind of value.

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Now, are we 100% sure about that?

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Well, I'll tell you what we'll do.

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Let's do true as a value, because that's a separate value.

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That would be a Boolean value.

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Let's go back to variable4, and sure enough, it returns the Boolean value.

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So even though we strongly type variables,

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sometimes the string one will basically accept whatever has been typed in there.

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Now, if you remember,

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variable1 was a series of numbers, variable2 was the text

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value, and variable3 was an integer number.

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Now,

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if I didn't know that, what we have is the ability to do what's called

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GetType, and then I'm going to say Name and do Enter,

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and it will let me know what type of variable that is.

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So if I was unsure there's a variable coming in,

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I could say, well, GetType. If the type is the name of integer,

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then I know that that's a number.

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If I go and do the same thing for number 4,

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it will come back and say String, because that's the string one that we created.

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Now, of course, what happens when we want to kind of convert variables together?

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Then, of course, they need to be of the same type.

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So if I said variable, let's say 3,

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which was the number, + $variable4 and did that, it's

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going to come back with an InvalidArgument because one of

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them is a Boolean string value, which we set to True,

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and one is an integer,

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so you'll always get this error that's saying this is an incorrect format.

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Now, what we can do at this point is typely strong,

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like strongly type the variables even so that we can

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then adjust and add those together.

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So if I create some new variables, I'm going to say integer,

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and we'll call it num1, and I'll set that to 23.

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And then I forgot to put the dollar sign in there.

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It's always good that it lets me know.

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There we go. So integer and do $num2 = 45.

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Now what I can do is I can say $num1 + $num2, and I will get the answer of

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68, which is the sum from that. And I could do division, multiplication

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because the input values are specified as images.

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So when you're defining variables,

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you need to make sure that you define them as the right type so that

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then you can do conversion of that, if needed.

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Now, what we're going to do is go a little bit further, and

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we'll look at, well, how do we convert values?

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So let's say that we had var1 and var1 was set to

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01/01/2021, so just a text value.

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So if I say var, it will literally render just the text value.

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Now what about if I wanted to make that into an actual date?

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So what we can do here is we can prefix, so I'm going to use

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[DateTime]$var1 and do Enter. Now notice what happens.

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It converts it into the correct format for me, so

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January the 1st, 2021, which was the time.

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So I took a standard string value, and literally,

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by adding the type to the definition of the variable,

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it was able to then change to whatever that would be.

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Now if I go back and just say var1, notice it's still 01/01/2021 because I

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haven't changed that one. Now I could do it a different way.

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I could use that as, and I could say DateTime,

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and it will then return that value.

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But once again, if I go back to var1, it still retains the existing value.

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So when you're looking at converting values from one to another,

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whether it's a Boolean to an integer or a string to a

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number or a number or a string to a date,

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be careful how you do that because if you choose the wrong type,

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you can get the wrong value.

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And, of course, we've seen that in the past where, you know,

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I start with var2 and set that as a 1.2 as a value.

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So when I do var2, I get 1.2.

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But if I go and say integer for var2,

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I only get 1, and it loses everything else after it.

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I can then change that and say, well, actually,

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I want that to be a boolean,

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and it's going to return true because it has 1 at the beginning of it,

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even though it's an arbitrary value of 1.2.

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So just be aware,

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depending on the type of kind of value that you set for it, if I do string,

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it'll return the same value.

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If I go back and for some weird reason I choose datetime,

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it's going to give me a random datetime as well.

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So just be aware, getting the strongly typed values correct will

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dictate whether you have the right values returned to you for any other calculations that you want to use.