Parameter Position Attribute issue in V5.0 PowerShell

PowerShell Help
1

Hi Folks. First I would like to thank you all for the community. I’m from Brazil and become a really PowerShell fan. I found a issue on Version 5.0 when look to Parameter Position Attribute. When I look for help using get-help about_parameters I receive the sample below:

Parameter Position?
This setting indicates whether you can supply a parameter’s value
without preceding it with the parameter name. If set to “0” or “named,”
a parameter name is required. This type of parameter is referred to as
a named parameter. A named parameter can be listed in any position
after the cmdlet name.

If the “Parameter position?” setting is set to an integer other than 0,
the parameter name is not required. This type of parameter is referred
to as a positional parameter, and the number indicates the position
in which the parameter must appear in relation to other positional
parameters. If you include the parameter name for a positional
parameter, the parameter can be listed in any position after the
cmdlet name.

For example, the Get-ChildItem cmdlet has Path and Exclude parameters.
The “Parameter position?” setting for Path is 1, which means that it
is a positional parameter. The “Parameter position?” setting for Exclud
is 0, which means that it is a named parameter.

This means that Path does not require the parameter name, but its
parameter value must be the first or only unnamed parameter value
in the command. However, because the Exclude parameter is a named
parameter, you can place it in any position in the command.

As a result of the “Parameter position?” settings for these two
parameters, you can use any of the following commands:

   Get-ChildItem -path c:\techdocs -exclude *.ppt
   Get-ChildItem c:\techdocs -exclude *.ppt
   Get-ChildItem -exclude *.ppt -path c:\techdocs
   Get-ChildItem -exclude *.ppt c:\techdocs

If you were to include another positional parameter without including
the parameter name, that parameter would have to be placed in the order
specified by the “Parameter position?” setting.

When I look for help of Get-ChildItem -Full the parameter -Path had the value of 0 instead of 1. I found the same issue in all others cmdlets help files, like get-acl, get-content and others. As the output said before, when you have a 0 value, that means you gonna have to use the parameter name. Does anyone know Why this? Should we contact Microsoft to Update the Help or change the PowerShell dll?

Sorry if my text could be a little confuse. Every body feel free to correct me and help me out improve my English.

Thx.

2

Positional parameters are used if you don’t provide a specific named parameter, you’re specifying the parameter order. Best practice, you should always use a named parameter versus assuming you have the right order. The below is example walks through some different scenarios, but the last example would be incorrect because you are passing a last name to the first name positional parameter, but the command will execute regardless:

function Test-It {
    param (
        [Parameter(Position=0)]
        [string]$FirstName,
        [Parameter(Position=1)]
        [string]$LastName
    )
    begin{}
    process{
        #Note that this string format is positional as well with zero {0} as the first placeholder
        $result = "My First Name is {0} and last name is {1}" -f $FirstName, $LastName
    }
    end{
        $result
    }
}

"`r`n**Named Parameter"
Test-It -FirstName "John" -LastName "Smith"
"`r`n**Positional parameter"
Test-It "Sally" "Thompson"
"`r`n**Named Parameter backwards"
Test-It -LastName "Thompson" -Firstname "Sally"
"`r`n**Positional parameter backwards"
Test-It "Smith" "John"

Output:

**Named Parameter
My First Name is John and last name is Smith

**Positional parameter
My First Name is Sally and last name is Thompson

**Named Parameter backwards
My First Name is Sally and last name is Thompson

**Positional parameter backwards
My First Name is Smith and last name is John
3

I’ve blogged about this at

4

Thank you very much Richard Siddaway. I’m using your book PowerShell in Depth Second Edition to study. I’ll create a portuguese course about PowerShell.

Thank’s Rob Simmers too. You help me out to get more examples for my course.