Encode and Decode SQL Server Identifiers
SQL Server delimited identifiers sometimes contain characters not supported in Windows PowerShell paths. These characters can be specified by encoding their hexadecimal values.
Before you begin: Limitations and Restrictions
To process special characters: Encoding an Identifier, Decoding an Identifier
Before You Begin
Characters that are not supported in Windows PowerShell path names can be represented, or encoded, as the "%" character followed by the hexadecimal value for the bit pattern that represents the character, as in "**%**xx". Encoding can always be used to handle characters that are not supported in Windows PowerShell paths.
The Encode-SqlName cmdlet takes as input a SQL Server identifier. It outputs a string with all the characters that are not supported by the Windows PowerShell language encoded with "%xx". The Decode-SqlName cmdlet takes as input an encoded SQL Server identifier and returns the original identifier.
Limitations and Restrictions
The Encode-Sqlname and Decode-Sqlname cmdlets only encode or decode the characters that are allowed in SQL Server delimited identifiers, but are not supported in PowerShell paths. These are the characters encoded by Encode-SqlName and decoded by Decode-SqlName:
Character |
\ |
/ |
: |
% |
< |
> |
* |
? |
[ |
] |
| |
Hexadecimal Encoding |
%5C |
%2F |
%3A |
%25 |
%3C |
%3E |
%2A |
%3F |
%5B |
%5D |
%7C |
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Encoding an Identifier
To encode a SQL Server identifier in a PowerShell path
Use one of two methods to encode a SQL Server identifier:
Specify the hexadecimal code for the unsupported character using the syntax %XX, where XX is the hexadecimal code.
Pass the identifier as a quoted string to the Encode-Sqlname cmdlet
Examples (Encoding)
This example specifies the encoded version of the ":" character (%3A):
Set-Location Table%3ATest
Alternatively, you can use Encode-SqlName to build a name supported by Windows PowerShell:
Set-Location (Encode-SqlName "Table:Test")
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Decoding an Identifier
To decode a SQL Server identifier from a PowerShell path
Use the Decode-Sqlname cmdlet to replace the hexadecimal encodings with the characters represented by the encoding.
Examples (Decoding)
This example returns “Table:Test”:
Decode-SqlName "Table%3ATest"
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See Also
Concepts
SQL Server Identifiers in PowerShell