About Special Characters
Short description
Describes the special characters that you can use to control how PowerShell interprets the next character in a command or parameter.
Long description
PowerShell supports a set of special character sequences that are used to represent characters that aren't part of the standard character set.
PowerShell's special characters are only interpreted when they're enclosed in
double-quoted (") strings. Special characters begin with the backtick
character, known as the grave accent (ASCII 96), and are case-sensitive.
PowerShell recognizes these special characters:
| Character | Description |
|---|---|
`0 |
Null |
`a |
Alert |
`b |
Backspace |
`f |
Form feed |
`n |
New line |
`r |
Carriage return |
`t |
Horizontal tab |
`v |
Vertical tab |
--% |
Stop parsing |
Null (`0)
The null (`0) character appears as an empty space in PowerShell output.
This functionality allows you to use PowerShell to read and process text files
that use null characters, such as string termination or record termination
indicators. The null special character isn't equivalent to the $null
variable, which stores a null value.
Alert (`a)
The alert (`a) character sends a beep signal to the computer's speaker.
You can use this character to warn a user about an impending action. The
following example sends two beep signals to the local computer's speaker.
for ($i = 0; $i -le 1; $i++){"`a"}
Backspace (`b)
The backspace (`b) character moves the cursor back one character, but it
doesn't delete any characters.
The example writes the word backup and then moves the cursor back twice. Then, at the new position, writes a space followed by the word out.
"backup`b`b out"
back out
Form feed (`f)
The form feed (`f) character is a print instruction that ejects the
current page and continues printing on the next page. The form feed character
only affects printed documents. It doesn't affect screen output.
New line (`n)
The new line (`n) character inserts a line break immediately after the
character.
This example shows how to use the new line character to create line breaks in a
Write-Host command.
"There are two line breaks to create a blank line`n`nbetween the words."
There are two line breaks to create a blank line
between the words.
Carriage return (`r)
The carriage return (`r) character eliminates the entire line before the
character's insertion point. The carriage returns functions as though the prior
text were on a different line.
In this example, the text before the carriage return is removed from the output.
Write-Host "Let's not move`rDelete everything before this point."
Delete everything before this point.
Horizontal tab (`t)
The horizontal tab (`t) character advances to the next tab stop and
continues writing at that point. By default, the PowerShell console has a tab
stop at every eighth space.
This example inserts two tabs between each column.
"Column1`t`tColumn2`t`tColumn3"
Column1 Column2 Column3
Vertical tab (`v)
The horizontal tab (`v) character advances to the next vertical tab stop
and writes all subsequent output beginning at that point. The vertical tab
character only affects printed documents. It doesn't affect screen output.
Stop parsing (--%)
The stop-parsing (--%) symbol prevents PowerShell from interpreting arguments
in program calls as PowerShell commands and expressions.
Place the stop-parsing symbol after the program name and before program arguments that might cause errors.
In this example, the Icacls command uses the stop-parsing symbol.
icacls X:\VMS --% /grant Dom\HVAdmin:(CI)(OI)F
PowerShell sends the following command to Icacls.
X:\VMS /grant Dom\HVAdmin:(CI)(OI)F
For more information about the stop-parsing symbol, see about_Parsing.