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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-28T15:24:33+00:00

I have a powershell cmdlet, and I can’t seem to get the parameter sets

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I have a powershell cmdlet, and I can’t seem to get the parameter sets to work.
This cmdlet has 31 possible parameters and it can go down two possible processing paths.
All 31 parameters are optional, 18 are common to both paths, 9 are unique to the “right” path and 4 are unique to the “left” path. What I’m trying to accomplish is to use powershell’s ParameterSet attributes to specify which parameter can be used when. But it’s not working.

Below is a mock-up of my attempt. Names have been changed to protect the innocent.

[Parameter]
public string SomeString1 { get; set; }

[Parameter]
public string SomeString2 { get; set; }

[Parameter(ParameterSetName = "left")]
public string LeftName { get; set; }

[Parameter(ParameterSetName = "left")]
public string LeftDomain { get; set; }

[Parameter(ParameterSetName = "right")]
public string RightID { get; set; }

[Parameter(ParameterSetName = "right")]
public string RightIP { get; set; }

So when I run this, I try to check my parameter lists using get-help, and all I see is one big clump of parameters when it should split them up into two lists, one including the two “left” parameters plus the two unnamed ones, and another including the “right” parameters plus the unnamed ones.

The hilarious part is that we have another cmdlet that lets me do this just fine, no problems, perfect output. But for some reason this one isn’t letting me. Same includes, same syntax, just different names. So I know our setup is correct, because it works sometimes. But it doesn’t work all of the time, so I’m stumped.

I’ve tried changing some/all of the parameters to Mandatory, I’ve tried using a DefaultParameterSetName at the header. I’ve tried doubling up on sets, like including a set named “both” and making every parameter part of that set. I’ve read through the MSDN article on parameter sets, I’ve read through the first 40 articles that google returns, but I can’t get it working. Half of my team has stood behind my desk watching me do it, and they’re all stumped as well.

What can I do to:

  • figure out why it isn’t recognizing my parameter sets
  • make it so that it does
  • prevent this from happening in the future
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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Keith Hill, thanks for the tip – I tried commenting out all but the most minimal parameters and I noticed that when I ran the get-help on the cmdlet that it still returned all of the parameters. I knew something goofy was going on, and it turns out that the help file was not getting updated when I compiled the cmdlet.

    When I worked that issue out, it appears that everything was functioning exactly as I expected it to, it was that the get-help was using old information. That’s why nobody else could figure it out, either. I was doing it right, so there were no bugs, just poor documentation.

    Major facepalm moment, but I got it worked out. The lesson is: always make sure your help is automatically generating.

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