Finally, except if not!

Open Discussions
1

MS docs say finally will always run even if you use exit keyword or press CTRL + C on keyboard to terminate script.

Seems like it’s not imune to return keyword:

try {
    throw 1
}
catch
{
    return "x"
} finaly { "fin" }

Output:

x

Expected:

x
fin

2

The documentation does not claim the finally block to be imune though.

And BTW: it’s finally with a double L !!! :wink:

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3

Now that’s funny, it works as expected when correctly spelled to “finally”.

But why the heck it didn’t error out for mispelling a language keyword? :upside_down_face:

Yes it does, it says finally will run no matter what.

4

I’d read that diffently …

Freeing resources using finally

To free resources used by a script, add a finally block after the try and catch blocks. The finally block statements run regardless of whether the try block encounters a terminating error. PowerShell runs the finally block before the script terminates or before the current block goes out of scope.

A finally block runs even if you use CTRL+C to stop the script. A finally block also runs if an Exit keyword stops the script from within a catch block.

It does not mention return at all.

5

You read it as if exit keyword is less impactful than return :wink:
Obviously there is no difference when it comes to how finally works.

Can you give an example where finally won’t run?

6

You claimed that it will not run when return is called. I just said that the documentation does not mention return explicitly … that’s all. :man_shrugging:t4:

How would you read it?

exit:

return:

7

that’s fine, I didn’t notice my finally was misspelled because there was no error but it should have errored IMO.

I guess it was interpreted as function name but it wasn’t called due to return preceding…

I read it as whole or what the docs are saying in whole rather than explicitly.
similar to how the bible is read :slightly_smiling_face:

8

Return exits immediately so maybe that’s why I’d didn’t error. But I’d also think it would catch that error at parsing (or while you’re editing it)

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