Why would a function have empty parentheses?

PowerShell Help
1

I am going through some scripts and functions written be a predecessor, and quite a few functions start like this:

Function SomethingCool()

Why would you put empty parentheses in the function name like that?

It seems to be in lieu of having a parameter set, and the function just assumes that the variables it has exist in the script that calls it?

 

I have been unable to google my way to documentation about this, since the words “function” and “parentheses” (And various permutations) come up with unrelated results…

2

Using Function SomethingCool() is a shorthand approach to something like:

function Get-SomethingCool {
    param ()
    begin {}
    process {}
    end {}
}

My guess is the scripter learned in a diffent language that was more strict requiring a specific format and\or it nice to have consistency to your code. For instance, in my functions would all look like above, regardless if I have params or something in the begin block.

3

Thanks, I suspected it was something like that, but couldn’t find anything on the internets.

My functions tend to look the same as yours :wink:

4

It’s probably a coding pattern they picked up from elsewhere. For example, in C# a method (aka function) must always have parentheses to be valid syntax.

It’s not very good PowerShell syntax, but it is technically valid.

5

Thanks, that is probably it. I know that this person had a bit of a coding background, so that would make sense.