PowerShell/PowerShell · error · ArgumentOutOfRangeException

'minValue' cannot be greater than maxValue.

Error message

'minValue' cannot be greater than maxValue.

What it means

Thrown by the Get-Random cmdlet's internal generator method Next(int minValue, int maxValue) when the inclusive lower bound exceeds the exclusive upper bound. The contract is maxValue >= minValue; the method guards this before computing the random range and refuses to produce a nonsensical result.

Source

Thrown at src/Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Utility/commands/utility/GetRandomCommandBase.cs:649

            if (maxValue < 0)
            {
                throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException(nameof(maxValue), GetRandomCommandStrings.MaxMustBeGreaterThanZeroApi);
            }

            return Next(0, maxValue);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Returns a random integer that is within a specified range.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="minValue">The inclusive lower bound of the random number returned.</param>
        /// <param name="maxValue">The exclusive upper bound of the random number returned. maxValue must be greater than or equal to minValue.</param>
        /// <returns>Next random integer.</returns>
        public int Next(int minValue, int maxValue)
        {
            if (minValue > maxValue)
            {
                throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException(nameof(minValue), GetRandomCommandStrings.MinGreaterThanOrEqualMaxApi);
            }

            int randomNumber = 0;

            long range = (long)maxValue - (long)minValue;
            if (range <= int.MaxValue)
            {
                randomNumber = (int)(NextDouble() * range) + minValue;
            }
            else
            {
                double largeSample = InternalSampleLargeRange() * (1.0 / (2 * ((uint)int.MaxValue)));
                randomNumber = (int)((long)(largeSample * range) + minValue);
            }

            return randomNumber;
        }

View on GitHub (pinned to 3ff3c711bf)

Solutions

1. Ensure -Maximum is greater than -Minimum before calling Get-Random; swap if the caller's inputs are unordered
2. Compute bounds defensively: int lo=Math.Min(a,b), hi=Math.Max(a,b) then use lo as min, hi as max
3. Validate the range up front and surface a clear caller-side error rather than letting Get-Random throw

Example fix

// before
Get-Random -Minimum 100 -Maximum 10

// after
Get-Random -Minimum 10 -Maximum 100

if ($Minimum -gt $Maximum) { throw "Minimum ($Minimum) must be <= Maximum ($Maximum)" }
Get-Random -Minimum $Minimum -Maximum $Maximum

null

null

When it happens

Trigger: Calling Get-Random -Minimum N -Maximum M where N > M, or invoking the public Next(minValue,maxValue) API directly with minValue greater than maxValue (e.g. Next(10, 5)).

Common situations: Swapped -Minimum/-Maximum argument order, computing bounds from data where the 'max' value is unexpectedly smaller than the 'min' (empty range, off-by-one), or passing user-supplied range values without ordering them.

Related errors

• {argumentName}
• Argument '{0}' contains characters that are not allowed in p
• 'maxValue' must be greater than zero.
• Non negative number is required.
• The ID parameter must be in the range {0} through {1}.

AI-assisted analysis of PowerShell/PowerShell@3ff3c711bf (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e103fb0fdd9a8e5d. Report an issue: GitHub.