Pass a string to a routine from powershell

Question

Question

#ObjectScript #HealthShare #InterSystems IRIS #Health Connect

Hi Community,

i'm trying to figure out how to pass a string to a routine from Powershell:

####

ROUTINE ImplUtil

Say(pSomething = "hello, i'm the ROUTINE") public{
    w !,pSomething,!
}

####

call: irissession healthconnect -U user 'Say^ImplUtil(12345)'

what's the right way to pass in text?

Discussion (8)2

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Colin Gadumer · Jun 5

By the Power of ChatGPT it is: Triple Quotes.

Spoiler

# Test string escaping for IRIS session routine calls
param(
    [string]$Instance = "healthconnect",
    [string]$TestString = "Your String Here"
)

Write-Host "Testing string escaping for IRIS session routine calls" -ForegroundColor Cyan
Write-Host "Instance: $Instance" -ForegroundColor Yellow
Write-Host "Test String: '$TestString'" -ForegroundColor Yellow
Write-Host ""
# Array of different escape patterns to test
$escapeTests = @(
    @{
        Name = "Backtick quotes"
        Pattern = 'Say^ImplUtil(`"' + $TestString + '`")'
    },
    @{
        Name = "Single quotes around whole command"
        Pattern = "Say^ImplUtil(""$TestString"")"
    },
    @{
        Name = "Double quotes escaped with backslash"
        Pattern = 'Say^ImplUtil(\"' + $TestString + '\")'
    },
    @{
        Name = "Single quotes inside double quotes"
        Pattern = "Say^ImplUtil('$TestString')"
    },
    @{
        Name = "No quotes around string"
        Pattern = "Say^ImplUtil($TestString)"
    },
    @{
        Name = "Backtick escaped double quotes"
        Pattern = "Say^ImplUtil(`"$TestString`")"
    },
    @{
        Name = "Double backtick quotes"
        Pattern = 'Say^ImplUtil(``"' + $TestString + '``")'
    },
    @{
        Name = "Triple quotes"
        Pattern = 'Say^ImplUtil("""' + $TestString + '""")'
    },
    @{
        Name = "Percent encoding style"
        Pattern = "Say^ImplUtil(%22$TestString%22)"
    },
    @{
        Name = "Curly braces"
        Pattern = "Say^ImplUtil({$TestString})"
    }
)

$successfulPatterns = @()

foreach ($test in $escapeTests) {
    Write-Host "Testing: $($test.Name)" -ForegroundColor White
    Write-Host "Pattern: $($test.Pattern)" -ForegroundColor Gray
    
    try {
        # Test the pattern
        $result = irissession $Instance -U user $test.Pattern 2>&1
        # Check if it's an invalid argument error
        if ($result -match "INVALID ARGUMENT" -or $result -match "ERROR" -or $result -match "SYNTAX ERROR") {
            Write-Host "❌ FAILED: $result" -ForegroundColor Red
        } else {
            Write-Host "✅ SUCCESS: $result" -ForegroundColor Green
            $successfulPatterns += $test
        }
    } catch {
        Write-Host "❌ EXCEPTION: $_" -ForegroundColor Red
    }
    
    Write-Host ""
}

# Summary
Write-Host "=== SUMMARY ===" -ForegroundColor Cyan
if ($successfulPatterns.Count -gt 0) {
    Write-Host "Successful patterns:" -ForegroundColor Green
    foreach ($pattern in $successfulPatterns) {
        Write-Host "  ✅ $($pattern.Name): $($pattern.Pattern)" -ForegroundColor Green
    }
} else {
    Write-Host "No successful patterns found. Consider testing with a simpler command first." -ForegroundColor Yellow
}

Testing: Triple quotes
Pattern: Say^ImplUtil("""Your String Here""")
✅ SUCCESS: Your String Here

I'm fairly certain i tested this before though. 🤔

0 0

Roger Merchberger · 23 hr ago

OK, I think I figured out a way that seems to work with both spaces & non-spaces in the strings...

You need to use the "Stop Parsing" token available in powershell: --%

With that, and the usual delimiting with double quotes in strings (I couldn't get it working with outer single quotes at the PS command prompt), this does seem to work:

# So, you can run the script this way (at the command line):

.\irissession healthconnect -U user --% "Say^ImplUtil(""""""Your string here"""""")"

and it should work. In your script, you would need to make these modifications:

[string]$TestString = "Test_string_without_spaces"
# or to test with spaces
[string]$TestString = "Test string with spaces"
# In the escape test:
Name = "Double-Triple quotes"
Pattern = 'Say^ImplUtil(""""""' + $TestString + '"""""")'
# and because we're changing how we parse the string when calling it,
# we need to add a secondary stage when parsing the command. In the first
# try loop after the foreach, change your code to this:
$zparams = ' --% ' + $test.Pattern + ' 2>&1'
# Test the pattern
$result = .\irissession $Instance -U user $zparams
# Should be the end of the modifications...

Note: My instances and namespaces are quite a bit different than yours, so I tried to adjust things back to how you had it from my testing, but if I wasn't quite successful, I apologize for any missteps.

Hope this helps!

1 0

score 0 · Answer 1 · 2025-06-05T07:17:22-04:00

To pass a string to a routine from PowerShell, you can use a syntax similar to the following example:

call: irissession healthconnect -U user 'Say^ImplUtil("Your String Here")'

In ObjectScript, to call a routine with an argument, you use the caret symbol (^) followed by the routine name, then the method with the argument in parentheses as shown in this syntax:

DO Say^ImplUtil(argument)

Here, argument can be a string such as "hello, I'm the ROUTINE" enclosed in quotation marks. This ensures the argument is passed correctly as a string [1].

Sources:

1.Invoking Code and Passing Arguments | Using ObjectScript | InterSystems IRIS Data Platform 2025.1

score 1 · Answer 2 · 2025-06-05T07:52:07-04:00

thank you for confirming my approach, but unfortunately that's not how it works it seems.

PS C:\Users\Colin\Desktop> irissession healthconnect -U user 'Say^ImplUtil("Your String Here")'

<INVALID ARGUMENT>>

score 0 · Answer 3 · 2025-06-05T09:47:53-04:00

Have you tried adding backticks to your double-quotes to escape them?

PS C:\Users\Colin\Desktop> irissession healthconnect -U user 'Say^ImplUtil(`"Your String Here`")'

score 0 · Answer 4 · 2025-06-05T15:18:46-04:00

I tried your test script and at least on my Win2016 server running HealthShare 2017 in PowerShell, and none of the tests passed on my system. However... if you triple-quote the triple-quotes, I was able to get it to run. So, the test argument was:

        Name = "Triple-Triple Quotes"
        Pattern = 'Say^ImplUtil("""""""""' + $TestString + '""""""""")'

But... my original $TestString didn't have any spaces in it. Once I added spaces, it failed both the 'Triple Quotes' and the 'triple-triple quotes' tests... so with a bit more tinkering, I changed this:

$TestString = '"""Your String Here"""'

and it passed the Triple Quote test but failed the Triple-Triple Quote test... so it looks like if the string has spaces you need six quotes on each side of the string, but if not you need nine.

I have not yet found a delimiter that would work in both cases (string with & without spaces) but I'll keep tinkering as I have time...

score 0 · Answer 5 · 2025-06-05T16:31:11-04:00

Colin Gadumer · 23 hr ago

thank you, I'll try this. 😊

0 0

score 0 · Answer 6 · 2025-06-05T10:41:24-04:00

As a guess you need to escape something as powershell is stripping it off and then not passing it.
This is common on Unix shells