The switch data type is used to control whether a switch (as in arguments or options passed to a function or command) is provided for the function/command or not. Suppose that there is a function called Switch-Demo that can accept -Force and -Quiet switches. These switches just work as toggles. What we care about them is whether they exist or not. There are no pieces of data accompanying them. The PowerShell switch data-type suits this purpose:

function Switch-Demo {
    param(
        [switch]$Force,
        [switch]$Quiet
    )

    if($Force.IsPresent) {
        Write-Host "Forcefully doing the task"
    } else {
        Write-Host "Force is NOT present"
    }

    if($Quiet.IsPresent) {
        Write-Host "Quietly doing the task"
    } else {
        Write-Host "Quiet is NOT present"
    }
}

# invocation:
Switch-Demo -Quiet

In the invocation of the above example, the Quiet switch is present while the Force switch is not.

As shown above, the .IsPresent property of the switch variable can be used to check whether the particular switch has been passed to the function/command.

Default values for the parameters of type switch can be specified by Boolean values. To make a switch present by default the [switch]::Present constant can also be used, which is equivalent to $true. As of now I’m not aware of any [switch]:: constants that is equivalent to $false. Example:

function Switch-Demo {
    param(
        [switch]$Force=[switch]::Present,
        [switch]$Quiet=$false,
        [switch]$WhatIf=$true
    )

    # ...
}

This means that the invoker does not need to specify -Force switch (it is by default considered to be provided). What if the invoker doesn’t like the -Force switch to be present? To override that the invoker can specify Boolean constants as values for the switch:

Switch-Demo -Force:$false

I personally don’t find this way of overriding switch values quite intuitive. I’d rather name switch variables in a way that their default value is $false, or when not possible provide another switch with a negative name compared to the other one that overrides its functionality. Example:

function Switch-Demo {
    param(
        [switch]$Quiet=[switch]::Present,
        [switch]$Verbose
    )

    # Override the values
    if($Verbose.IsPresent){
        $Quiet = $false;
    }

    # Check the values
    if($Quiet.IsPresent){
        Write-Host "Quietly doing the job."
    } else {
        Write-Host "Verbosely doing the job."
    }
}

# invocations:
Switch-Demo -Quiet
Switch-Demo -Verbose