Is there a shorthand for the IF statement in PowerShell? - bash

Question

In bash, I often did things like:
[ -z "${someEnvVar}" ] && someEnvVar="default value"
Instead of creating a full-fledge if statement:
if [ -z "${someEnvVar}" ]; then someEnvVar="default value"; fi
Is there a similar shorthand in PowerShell without creating a function or alias?
I'd rather not write the following in PowerShell:
if ("${someVar}" -eq "") {
$someVar = "default value"
}

Answer 1

If seems more readable to me, but you can use short circuit of OR (similar to BASH version):
$someVar = ""
[void]($someVar -ne "" -or ($someVar = "Default"))
$someVar #yields "Default"
$someVar = "Custom"
[void]($someVar -ne "" -or ($someVar = "Default"))
$someVar #yields "Custom"

Answer 2

I am afraid Powershell doesnt have such an elegant solution as C# have:
Exp1 ? Exp2: Exp3
msg = (age >= 18) ? "Welcome" : "Sorry";
But you could do something like this:
$someVar = if ("${someVar}" -eq "") { "default value" }

Answer 3

Here are some options:
$emptystring = ""
if ($emptystring -eq "") {
"The string was empty"
}
if (!$emptystring) {
"The string was null or empty"
}
if (!$someVar) {
"The value was null or unassigned"
}
if ([string]::IsNullOrEmpty($emptystring)) {
"The value was null or empty"
}
This produces the following output:
The string was empty
The string was null or empty
The value was null or unassigned
The value was null or empty

Answer 4

Since PowerShell 7, you can use C#-like If ? Then : Else syntax:
$Variable = -not $Variable ? $Default : $Variable
For pipes, you can now use bash-like || and &&:
(Get-Value && Use-Value) || Set-Value $Default
or
(Get-Value && Use-Value) || (& {Set-Value $Default; Get-Value} | Use-Value)
where & executes a script block (I don't know of a way to chain two commands in a pipe without passing values between them)