Echo equivalent in PowerShell for script testing

There are several ways:

Write-Host: Write directly to the console, not included in function/cmdlet output. Allows foreground and background colour to be set.

Write-Debug: Write directly to the console, if $DebugPreference set to Continue or Stop.

Write-Verbose: Write directly to the console, if $VerbosePreference set to Continue or Stop.

The latter is intended for extra optional information, Write-Debug for debugging (so would seem to fit in this case).

Additional: In PSH2 (at least) scripts using cmdlet binding will automatically get the -Verbose and -Debug switch parameters, locally enabling Write-Verbose and Write-Debug (i.e. overriding the preference variables) as compiled cmdlets and providers do.

PowerShell interpolates, does it not?

In PHP

echo "filesizecounter: " . $filesizecounter 

can also be written as:

echo "filesizecounter: $filesizecounter" 

In PowerShell something like this should suit your needs:

Write-Host "filesizecounter: $filesizecounter"

Write-Host "filesizecounter : " $filesizecounter 

By far the easiest way to echo in powershell, is just create the string object and let the pipeline output it:

$filesizecounter = 8096
"filesizecounter : $filesizecounter"

Of course, you do give up some flexibility when not using the Write-* methods.

It should also be mentioned, that Set-PSDebug is similar to the old-school echo on batch command:

Set-PSDebug -Trace 1

This command will result in showing every line of the executing script:

When the Trace parameter has a value of 1, each line of script is traced as it runs. When the parameter has a value of 2, variable assignments, function calls, and script calls are also traced. If the Step parameter is specified, you're prompted before each line of the script runs.

PowerShell has aliases for several common commands like echo. Type the following in PowerShell:

Get-Alias echo

to get a response:

CommandType     Name                                               Version    Source
-----------     ----                                               -------    ------
Alias           echo -> Write-Output

Even Get-Alias has an alias gal -> Get-Alias. You could write gal echo to get the alias for echo.

gal echo

Other aliases are listed here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/learn/using-familiar-command-names?view=powershell-6

cat dir mount rm cd echo move rmdir chdir erase popd sleep clear h ps sort cls history pushd tee copy kill pwd type del lp r write diff ls ren