I’m just getting started with Pester and I got this error

   Cannot bind argument to parameter 'Actual' because it is an empty string.
   at line: 18 in C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\pester\3.3.5\Functions\Assertions\Be.ps1

So, when it’s working it does this:

get-HugoNameAndValue -FrontMatterLine "Weighting: 103"
DEBUG: 09:15:37.6806 Start: get-HugoNameAndValue
DEBUG: - FrontMatterLine=Weighting: 103
DEBUG: - get-HugoNameAndValue.ps1: line 5
DEBUG: $PositionOfFirstColon: 9
DEBUG: $PropertyName : {Weighting}
DEBUG: $PropertyValue : { 103}
DEBUG: $PropertyValue : {103}

PropertyName PropertyValue
------------ -------------
Weighting    103

When I ran it from Pester I got this

GetHugoNameAndValue 06/21/2016 08:45:19 $ invoke-pester
Describing get-HugoNameAndValue
DEBUG: 08:45:56.3377 Start: get-HugoNameAndValue
DEBUG: - FrontMatterLine=Weighting: 103
DEBUG: - get-HugoNameAndValue.ps1: line 5
DEBUG: $PositionOfFirstColon: 9
DEBUG: $PropertyName : {Weighting}
DEBUG: $PropertyValue : { 103}
DEBUG: $PropertyValue : {103}
 [-] returns name and value 189ms
   Cannot bind argument to parameter 'Actual' because it is an empty string.
   at line: 18 in C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\pester\3.3.5\Functions\Assertions\Be.ps1
Tests completed in 189ms
Passed: 0 Failed: 1 Skipped: 0 Pending: 0

My Pester code was:

$here = Split-Path -Parent $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path
$sut = (Split-Path -Leaf $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path).Replace(".Tests.", ".")
. "$here\$sut"

Describe "get-HugoNameAndValue" {
    It "returns name and value" {
        $Hugo = get-HugoNameAndValue -FrontMatterLine "Weighting: 103"
        $value = $Hugo.Value
        $value | Should Be '103'
    }
}

The problem here was simply that I’d got the name of the Property wrong. It was ‘PropertyName’ not just ‘Name’

So I changed the Pester

$here = Split-Path -Parent $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path
$sut = (Split-Path -Leaf $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path).Replace(".Tests.", ".")
. "$here\$sut"

Describe "get-HugoNameAndValue" {
    It "returns name and value" {
        $Hugo = get-HugoNameAndValue -FrontMatterLine "Weighting: 103"
        $value = $Hugo.PropertyValue
        $value | Should Be '103'
    }
}

….and then it worked

invoke-pester
Describing get-HugoNameAndValue
DEBUG: 09:22:21.2291 Start: get-HugoNameAndValue
DEBUG: - FrontMatterLine=Weighting: 103
DEBUG: - get-HugoNameAndValue.ps1: line 5
DEBUG: $PositionOfFirstColon: 9
DEBUG: $PropertyName : {Weighting}
DEBUG: $PropertyValue : { 103}
DEBUG: $PropertyValue : {103}
 [+] returns name and value 99ms
Tests completed in 99ms
Passed: 1 Failed: 0 Skipped: 0 Pending: 0