Integer and floating-point types in PowerShell - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

💻 Command Output

intermediate

What is the output of this PowerShell code?

Consider the following PowerShell script:

$a = 5
$b = 2.5
$c = $a + $b
Write-Output $c.GetType().Name

What will be printed?

PowerShell

$a = 5
$b = 2.5
$c = $a + $b
Write-Output $c.GetType().Name

A String

B Int32

C Decimal

D Double

💡 Hint

Adding an integer and a floating-point number results in a floating-point type.

In PowerShell, when you add an integer (Int32) and a floating-point number (Double), the result is promoted to Double to preserve the decimal part.

🧠 Conceptual

intermediate

Which type does PowerShell assign to the number 3.0 by default?

In PowerShell, if you assign the value 3.0 to a variable like this:

$x = 3.0

What is the default type of $x?

A Double

B Int32

C Single

D Decimal

💡 Hint

Numbers with decimal points default to a floating-point type.

PowerShell treats numbers with decimal points as Double by default, which is a 64-bit floating-point type.

📝 Syntax

advanced

Which PowerShell assignment causes a type conversion error?

Which of the following assignments will cause a runtime error in PowerShell due to type mismatch?

A $z = [double] 5

B $x = [int] 3.7

C $y = [int] 'abc'

D $w = [float] 2.5

💡 Hint

Converting a non-numeric string to int causes an error.

Casting the string 'abc' to an integer fails because 'abc' is not a valid number.

🚀 Application

advanced

How many items are in the resulting array after this PowerShell script?

What is the length of the array $arr after running this script?

$arr = @()
for ($i = 0; $i -lt 5; $i++) {
  if ($i -is [int]) { $arr += $i }
  else { $arr += [math]::Round($i) }
}

A 5

B 10

C 0

D 1

💡 Hint

The loop runs 5 times and adds one item each time.

The loop runs from 0 to 4 (5 times). Each time, $i is an integer, so the if condition is true and $i is added to $arr. So $arr has 5 items.

🔧 Debug

expert

What error does this PowerShell code raise?

Examine this code snippet:

$num = 1.5
$intNum = [int]$num
$result = $intNum / 0

What error will occur when running this code?

A NullReferenceException

B DivideByZeroException

C No error, outputs Infinity

D InvalidCastException

💡 Hint

Dividing by zero causes an error in integer division.

Casting 1.5 to int results in 1. Dividing 1 by 0 causes a DivideByZeroException in PowerShell.