PowerShell ANSI Escape color not working with Format-Table

Question

Issue

For some reason the ANSI Escape colors in use with Format-Table loses the column alignment. Any suggestions to correct this behavior? The line that is causing this issue is

"$e[${color}m$($dbValue)${e}[0m"

Yet, if we don't use ANSI Escape the function works fine.

Expected results (colors removed)

id    author         title                genre    price  publish_date
--    ------         -----                -----    -----  ------------
Bk001 LName, FName   XML Powershell Guide Computer 104.95 2020-10-01
Bk002 LName2, FName2 Python Guide         Computer 104.95 2020-12-16

Current results (colors removed)

id    author         title                         genre             price  publish_date
--    ------         -----                         -----             -----  ------------
Bk001 LName, FName   XML Powershell Guide Computer 104.95 2020-10-01  
Bk002 LName2, FName2 Python Guide         Computer 104.95 2020-12-16

Sample code

$myBooks = [xml] @"
<catalog>
   <book id="Bk001">
      <author>LName, FName</author>
      <title>XML Powershell Guide</title>
      <genre>Computer</genre>
      <price>104.95</price>
      <publish_date>2020-10-01</publish_date>
   </book>
   <book id="Bk002">
      <author>LName2, FName2</author>
      <title>Python Guide</title>
      <genre>Computer</genre>
      <price>104.95</price>
      <publish_date>2020-12-16</publish_date>      
   </book>
</catalog>
"@

# Colors
# Red   31
# Green 32
$ColorRed = '31'
$ColorGreen = '32'

function ColorValue {
    param (     
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $False)][string]$dbValue,
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $False)][string]$color
    )
    $e = [char]27

    if ($color -eq [string]::Empty) {
        $color = $ColorGreen
    }

    if ([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($dbValue)) {
        $dbValue = 'NULL'
        $color = $ColorRed
    }
    "$e[${color}m$($dbValue)${e}[0m"
}

# title, genre, price, publish_date
$myBooks.catalog.book | Format-Table -AutoSize -Wrap -Property id, author, 
@{name = 'title'; expression = { (ColorValue $_.title)}}, 
@{name='genre';expression={ColorValue $_.genre $ColorRed}} , price, publish_date

PowerShell info

> $PSVersionTable
Name                           Value
----                           -----
PSVersion                      5.1.18362.752
PSEdition                      Desktop
PSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0...}
BuildVersion                   10.0.18362.752
CLRVersion                     4.0.30319.42000
WSManStackVersion              3.0
PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.3
SerializationVersion           1.1.0.1

Update

Even upgrading to PowerShell 5.1.19041.1 the issue remains. It is actually happening in VS Code PowerShell Terminal rather than PowerShell... Go figure. Any workaround for VS Code or file it as a bug?

Answer 1

It turns out the issue isn't in the code but rather the VS Code: PowerShell extension. Filed this as a bug: https://github.com/PowerShell/vscode-powershell/issues/2815