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$Context.CurrentFile.GetText not compatible with $Context.SelectedRange #1496
Description
In the Powershell 5.1 version, the following code do not work:
$Context = $psEditor.GetEditorContext()
$Context.CurrentFile.GetText($context.SelectedRange)
This seems to be a type error
Cannot find an overload for "GetText" and the argument count: "1".
At line:1 char:1
+ $text = $Context.CurrentFile.GetText($context.SelectedRange)
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : MethodCountCouldNotFindBest
Solution is to do the following
$Context = $psEditor.GetEditorContext()
$Range = [Microsoft.PowerShell.EditorServices.Extensions.FileRange]::new($context.SelectedRange.Start,$context.SelectedRange.End)
$Context.CurrentFile.GetText($Range)
I would expect the $Context.SelectedRange to work directly with the GetText method which take a FileRange as argument.
That does not end there.
When working with Powershell 7.2, the Microsoft.PowerShell.EditorServices.Extensions.FileRange type does not exist so not only the way you'd expect it to work does not work but also the workaround of creating a new object of the aforementionned type manually and pasting value from the context range do not work either.
The error in a PS 7,2 VSCode session with GetText and $Context.SelectedRange
MethodException: Cannot find an overload for "GetText" and the argument count: "1".
The error in a PS 7.2 VSCode session when trying to create a filerange object manually
InvalidOperation: Unable to find type [Microsoft.PowerShell.EditorServices.Extensions.FileRange].
Activity
andyleejordan commentedon Jun 14, 2021
This is interesting but a bit obscure to get fixed for the time being. I've marked it as up-for-grabs in case someone else wants to take a look.
BrianL-STCU commentedon Mar 19, 2026
Just noticed this problem in PowerShell 7.6. This is kind of a kludgy workaround, it would be nice to fix.
BrianL-STCU commentedon Mar 19, 2026
The workaround as written above doesn't work for me. I get "InvalidOperation: Unable to find type [Microsoft.PowerShell.EditorServices.Extensions.FileRange]."
I can use
Add-Typeto recognize the type, but this also feels fragile, and there is still a problem:Accept `IFileRange` in `FileContext.GetText` overloads (#2306)