Remove-Variable - Cannot find a variable with the name

Question

I have a powershell script that with the following hashtable

[HashTable]$folder_and_prefix = @{}

After a certain point in my script I no longer need that hashtable, I tried doing:

Remove-Variable $folder_and_prefix

but I get the following error:

Remove-Variable : Cannot find a variable with the name 'System.Collections.Hashtable'

Is it possible to remove a hastable that I no longer need?

Answer 1

This is a common mistake. Remove-Variable is taking the name of the variable (a [String]), and by referencing the variable itself (with a dollar sign $) you are passing the value. Remove the dollar sign and that's all you need:

Remove-Variable folder_and_prefix

Further, it takes an array of names, so you can do:

$var1 = 5
$var2 = 'Hello'
$var3 = @{}

Remove-Variable var1,var2,var3

And it accepts wildcards:

Remove-Variable var*

The wildcard acceptance is also true for Set-Variable, Get-Variable, and Clear-Variable (New-Variable is the exception).