Function return value in PowerShell

PowerShell has really wacky return semantics – at least when viewed from a more traditional programming perspective. There are two main ideas to wrap your head around:

  • All output is captured, and returned
  • The return keyword really just indicates a logical exit point

Thus, the following two script blocks will do effectively the exact same thing:

$a = "Hello, World"
return $a

$a = "Hello, World"
$a
return

The $a variable in the second example is left as output on the pipeline and, as mentioned, all output is returned. In fact, in the second example you could omit the return entirely and you would get the same behavior (the return would be implied as the function naturally completes and exits).

Without more of your function definition I can’t say why you are getting a PSMethod object. My guess is that you probably have something a few lines up that is not being captured and is being placed on the output pipeline.

It is also worth noting that you probably don’t need those semicolons – unless you are nesting multiple expressions on a single line.

You can read more about the return semantics on the about_Return page on TechNet, or by invoking the help return command from PowerShell itself.

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