PowerShell script error "Unexpected token 'h' in expression or statement. The string is missing the terminator:"

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I have the following code inside my console application to get a server information using PowerShell:

string PsCmd = "add-pssnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Core; $vCenterServer = '" + vCenterName.Trim() + "';$vCenterAdmin = '" + vCenterUsername.Trim() + "' ;$vCenterPassword = '" + vCenterPassword + "';" + System.Environment.NewLine;

PsCmd = PsCmd + "$VIServer = Connect-VIServer -Server $vCenterServer -User $vCenterAdmin -Password $vCenterPassword;" + System.Environment.NewLine;

PsCmd = PsCmd + "Get-VMHost " + System.Environment.NewLine;

Now the script is working well on the 150 servers we have, but on a single server I am getting this exception:

At line:1 char:131 + ... !*******(********6'*;*****'; + ~ Unexpected token 'h' in expression or statement. At line:1 char:135 + ... **(******';'; + ~~ The string is missing the terminator: '. | ABC

Which is raising an error on the password variable. And in my case I am getting the password from an external RESP API. Now the password have this format:

\"************

Where it starts with 2 reserved characters \", and the JSON object which I get will be as follow {"PASSWORD":"\"*******"}.. so could the problem be that the password contains reserved set of characters \"?? And how I can fix this?

powershell string c#
2 Answers

You need to escape the ". You do this in PowerShell using the ` character, e.g. `"

Try this:

string PsCmd = "Add-PSSnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Core; $vCenterServer = '" + vCenterName.Trim() + "'; $vCenterAdmin = '" + vCenterUsername.Trim() + "'; $vCenterPassword = \"" + vCenterPassword.Replace("\"", "`\"") + "\";" + System.Environment.NewLine;
Jon_Grant_187740

Now the password have this format:

\"*******

Where it starts with 2 reserved characters \"

If your passwords really come from JSON such as {"PASSWORD":"\"*******"}, your passwords do not start with \" - they start with ", because the \ is simply a JSON escape character needed to embed a literal " in char. in an (always double-quoted) JSON string value.

In other words: If you parse your JSON correctly, the actual password value will be:

"*******

You can verify this as follows:

PS> ('{ "PASSWORD": "\"*******" }' | ConvertFrom-Json).PASSWORD
"*******

Your next problem is that you're embedding the password in a string representing PowerShell source code, and inside that string you're using (embedded) single-quoting ('...') to surround the value[1].
In order to do that, you must escape value-embedded ' instances as '' so as not to cause a syntax error when PowerShell later parses the code:

// Note the .Replace() calls
string PsCmd = "add-pssnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Core; $vCenterServer = '" +
  vCenterName.Trim().Replace("'", "''") + "';$vCenterAdmin = '" + 
  vCenterUsername.Trim().Replace("'", "''") + 
  "' ;$vCenterPassword = '" + vCenterPassword.Replace("'", "''") + "';" + 
  System.Environment.NewLine;

With a literal password value of "***'*** (and sample values for the center and username), C# variable PSCmd will receive a string with the following literal contents:

add-pssnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Core; $vCenterServer = 'center1';$vCenterAdmin = 'jdoe' ;$vCenterPassword = '"***''***';

[1] And single quotes are the right choice, because using double quotes could result in unwanted interpretation (string interpolation) of the embedded value by PowerShell.

user_453750
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