If -match is case-insensitive, why do we need -imatch?

Question

It seems redundant to provide -match and -imatch if -match is already case-insensitive. Is there any difference between them?

Answer 1

To elaborate on Doug Maurer's comment:

The i-prefixed variants of PowerShell operators that (also) operate on strings are never necessary. In fact, they are simply aliases of their non-prefixed forms, so that -imatch is the same as -match, for instance, and - with string input - always acts case-insensitively, as PowerShell generally does.

These variants exist for symmetry with the c-prefixed operator variants, which explicitly request case-sensitive operation (with string input).

In other words: you can use the i-prefixed variants to make it explicit that a given operation is case-insensitive.

However, to someone familiar with PowerShell's fundamentally case-insensitive nature, that isn't necessary - and that's probably why you rarely see the i-prefixed variants in practice.