Powershell GetType

Question

I want to check is some type exist. For example:

Add-Type -TypeDefinition '
public class Test{
    public static int aaa(){
        return 1;
    }
}'

[test]::aaa() # 1

[type]::GetType('test') # empty

but GetType() not works for my 'test' type.

Answer 1

You can test if the type already exists with

if (-not ('Test' -as [type])) {
# or 
# if (-not ([System.Management.Automation.PSTypeName]'Test').Type) {
    Add-Type -TypeDefinition '
    public class Test{
        public static int aaa(){
            return 1;
        }
    }'
}

I don't know why [type]::GetType('test') doesn't work though, but

("Test" -as [type])

does work and returns either $null or

IsPublic IsSerial Name                                     BaseType                                                                                                               
-------- -------- ----                                     --------                                                                                                               
True     False    Test                                     System.Object