To explicitly convert one data type to another, PowerShell offers two ways:
PS> [int]5.6 6 PS> 5.6 -as [int] 6
While both approaches yield identical results in most cases, there are subtle differences:
- When you add the target type *before* the data, PowerShell uses the US culture and emits an exception when conversion fails.
- When you use the “-as” operator, PowerShell uses your local culture and emits no exception when conversion fails.
The different cultures become important when you convert i.e. string to datetime on a non-English system:
PS> [datetime]'1.5.23' Donnerstag, 5. Januar 2023 00:00:00 PS> '1.5.23' -as [datetime] Montag, 1. Mai 2023 00:00:00
Finally, both approaches feature a strange bug where type conversion works even though the input string is obviously garbled:
PS> [Type] 'int]whatever' IsPublic IsSerial Name BaseType -------- -------- ---- -------- True True Int32 System.ValueType PS> 'int]whatever' -as [Type] IsPublic IsSerial Name BaseType -------- -------- ---- -------- True True Int32 System.ValueType
Don’t take advantage of this bug though as it will be fixed soon in PowerShell 7.
