You can use the GetType() command in PowerShell to retrieve information about how a particular variable is stored.
Here are several common ways to use this command in practice:
Method 1: Use GetType() to Retrieve Variable Information
$my_var.GetType()
Method 2: Use GetType() to Retrieve Variable Type Only
$my_var.GetType().Name
Method 3: Use GetType() to Check if Variable is Specific Type
$my_var.GetType().Name -eq 'String'
The following examples show how to use each method in practice.
Example 1: Use GetType() to Retrieve Variable Information
We can use the following syntax to create a variable named $my_var that contains the value 100 and then use the GetType() command to retrieve information about the variable:
$my_var = 100
$my_var.GetType()
The following screenshot shows how to use this syntax in practice:
This returns the following information about the $my_var variable:
- IsPublic: Whether the variable is public (True)
- IsSerial: Whether the variable is serializable (True)
- Name: The variable type (Int32)
Example 2: Use GetType() to Retrieve Variable Information
We can use the following syntax to create a variable named $my_var that contains the value 100 and then use the GetType().Name command to only retrieve the variable type:
$my_var = 100
$my_var.GetType().Name
The following screenshot shows how to use this syntax in practice:
Notice that this returns only the value Int32, which tells us that the $my_var variable is an integer.
Example 3: Use GetType() to Check if Variable is Specific Type
We can use the following syntax to create a variable named $my_var that contains the value 100 and then use the GetType().Name command along with the -eq operator to check if the variable is a specific type:
$my_var = 100
$my_var.GetType().Name -eq 'String'
The following screenshot shows how to use this syntax in practice:
This returns False, which tells us that the variable named $my_var is not a string.
Feel free to replace String with any other variable type you’d like to check if a given variable is equal to a specific type.
Related Tutorials
The following tutorials explain how to perform other common tasks in PowerShell:
PowerShell: How to Convert String to Double
PowerShell: How to Convert String to Datetime
PowerShell: How to Create a Boolean Variable
