What's the difference between single quote and double quote to define a string in powershell

Question

Simple questions that's been bugging me: In powershell, I can define strings like so:

$s1 = "Boogety boo" 

or

$s2 = '.net rocks' 

Is there a difference to the interpreter?

Answer 1

Double quotes allow variable expansion while single quotes do not:

PS C:\Users\Administrator> $mycolor="red" PS C:\Users\Administrator> write-output -inputobject 'My favorite color is $mycolor' My favorite color is $mycolor 

Source: http://www.techotopia.com/index.php/Windows_PowerShell_1.0_String_Quoting_and_Escape_Sequences

(I know version 1.0 but the principle is still the same)

Answer 2

This is not trying to be a better answer. Just another way to say it.

The variable expansion between apostrophes and quotes are the same as on UNIX shells (sh, ksh, bash). Using apostrophes will take the character string as-is, without processing any escapes.

PS C:\Users\lit> $x = "`t" PS C:\Users\lit> $x  PS C:\Users\lit> Write-Output "now${x}is" now     is PS C:\Users\lit> $x = '`t' PS C:\Users\lit> $x `t PS C:\Users\lit> Write-Output "now${x}is" now`tis PS C:\Users\lit> $word = "easy" PS C:\Users\lit> "PowerShell is $word" PowerShell is easy PS C:\Users\lit> 'PowerShell is $word' PowerShell is $word