Use a fallback for a missing hashtable entry.
PowerShell: Test the key explicitly so legitimate false or zero values are preserved.
$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'
Set-StrictMode -Version Latest
$settings = @{ retries=0 }
if ($settings.ContainsKey('retries')) { $settings.retries } else { 3 }Expected output EXAMPLE
0
Details
Requires PowerShell 7. Save as snippet.ps1 and run pwsh -NoProfile -File snippet.ps1. Tested on Linux; these examples use portable paths and cmdlets. Test the key explicitly so legitimate false or zero values are preserved.
Tested on Ubuntu 24.04.5 LTS · · PowerShell 7.6.6 · powershell 7.6.6-1.deb
Test inputs, results and environment
The exact published code ran in a dedicated Linux test container with prepared inputs. Snippet process uid 65534 with a read-only root filesystem and temporary working files. Networking disabled. Fixtures and output records are isolated from the application database. Testing covers this example and its stated checks, not every input, operating system, or runtime version. The Linux container shares its host's kernel; this is not a native Windows test.
- Architecture / host kernel
- x86_64 / 6.18.54.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2
- Snippet identity / locale
- uid=65534, gid=65534 (unprivileged process) / C.UTF-8
- Interpreter invocation
pwsh -NoLogo -NoProfile -NonInteractive -File snippet.ps1- Container image ID
sha256:ec91410a8f6ec3e985830b5e3a0560306d36f8c1c5ccd91a6699abe707123fa3- Code SHA-256
156cfa292e93bc8687b7ee7c1251eb9e0d131fd74ab6980649fa684fdd751573- Dependencies
- powershell 7.6.6-1.deb
Test input setup
These are the prepared inputs used by the test harness. See Details above for the prerequisites and how to run this example.
# No input files required.
Observed standard output
0
Exit code: 0. Standard error: empty. Validation: Exact stdout comparison. System-dependent values above are one recorded run.