How to Jump Around to Certain Spots in PowerShell Script

1. Use a while Statement to Jump Around to Certain Spots in Script in PowerShell
2. Use a for Statement to Jump Around to Certain Spots in Script in PowerShell
3. Use function to Jump Around to Certain Spots in Script in PowerShell

The GOTO command jumps to a labeled line in a batch program. It directs command processing to a line specified in a label and provides the functionality of repeating lines of code.

PowerShell does not have the GOTO command. Instead, you can use the loop statements for iteration or repeating lines of code.

This tutorial will teach you to jump around to certain spots in the PowerShell script.

Use a while Statement to Jump Around to Certain Spots in Script in PowerShell

The while statement runs commands in a block as long as a condition is true. It means it will repeat lines of code when the condition is true.

Example Code:

$a = 1
while ($a -lt 10) {
    $a
    $a++
}

The first command assigns the value 1 to the variable $a. Inside the while block, the value of $a is printed.

The condition $a is not less than 10 is true, and the value of $a is incremented by 1 each iteration. When the value of $a reaches 10, the conditional statement becomes false, and the loop is terminated.

As a result, it prints the number from 1 to 9.

Output:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

You can create a while loop in your script that executes when the condition is true. If the condition is false, it will be skipped and make a script jump to the next spot.

Use a for Statement to Jump Around to Certain Spots in Script in PowerShell

The for statement or for loop runs commands in a block based on the condition. The commands in the loop continue to run until the condition becomes false.

In the following example, the condition $b is less than 6 evaluates to true, and the command in a for loop runs until the condition becomes false when it equals 6.

Example Code:

for ($b = 1; $b -lt 6; $b++) {
    Write-Host $b
}

Output:

1
2
3
4
5

Use function to Jump Around to Certain Spots in Script in PowerShell

Another alternative option is to wrap the block of commands in a function. If the value of $continue equals y, the condition becomes true in the following example.

As a result, it runs the first command in the if statement.

Example Code:

function Choice {
    $continue = Read-Host "Do you want to continue?"
    if ($continue -eq 'y') {
        Write-Host "Welcome to PowerShell tutorials."
    }
    else {
        Write-Host "Exited."
    }
}
Choice

Output:

Do you want to continue?: y
Welcome to PowerShell tutorials.

If the value of $continue is not equal to y, the condition becomes false, and the second command gets executed.

Output:

Do you want to continue?: n
Exited.

This way, you can easily make a script jump to a specific spot in PowerShell.