Search code examples
powershellfilenamesillegal-characters

writing double quotes to file name text with powershell

I have been at great pains to see where I've gone wrong here in adding double quotes to file name text. The following code works fine under the -whatif umbrella but not without.

$a = "20`" board"
get-childitem | rename-item -newname {$_.fullname -replace "20 board", $a } -whatif

get-childitem | rename-item -newname {$_.fullname -replace "20 board","20`" board" } -whatif

The desired outcome is to replace 20 board with 20" board. The above snippets give me a rename-item : Illegal characters in path. error.

Solution

  • In Windows you cannot use certain chars in a file or folder name; a double quote is one of those.

    Read more at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/fileio/naming-a-file.

    Excerpt from that page:

    The following reserved characters [are not allowed]:

< (less than)
(greater than)

: (colon)
" (double quote)
/ (forward slash)
\ (backslash)
| (vertical bar or pipe)
? (question mark)
* (asterisk)