PowerShell implicit value property in where-object

Question

Is it possible to convert following where PS script block

$env:Path -split ";" | where {$_ -like "c:\Program*"}

to a where comparison statement looking like

$env:Path -split ";" | where ???WHAT HERE??? -like "c:\Program*"

What I need is something that would replace the implicit $_ variable from the first statment.

Edit: My intention is pure curiosity. I prefer to use the second way of the where-object cmdlet, however, I do not know how to address the pipe value directly on the left side of the -like operator

Edit2: What is a comparison statement? A comparison statement is much more like natural language. Comparison statements were introduced in Windows PowerShell 3.0. An example:

Get-Process | Where-Object PriorityClass -eq "Normal"

Source: Where-Object on MSDN

Answer 1

Is it possible to convert following where PS script block

$env:Path -split ";" | where {$_ -like "c:\Program*"}

to a where comparison statement looking like

$env:Path -split ";" | where ???WHAT HERE??? -like "c:\Program*"

No, that is not possible.

There are two modes for Where-Object. Fully expressed, one looks like this:

ls | Where-Object -FilterScript { $_.Name -eq 'File.txt' }

Here, we're writing a scriptblock that contains an expression that is evaluated on every item.

The other mode, fully expressed, actually looks like this.

ls | Where-Object -Property Name -Value File.txt -Eq

Note that the -Eq here is a parameter and not an operator. We're calling a command, not writing an expression in a scriptblock here. And I know what you're thinking. "But to work that way, the command would need to have a different parameter set for every conceivable operator!" And that's exactly what they do!

Where-Object [-InputObject <PSObject>] [-Property] <String> [[-Value] <Object>] [-EQ] [<CommonParameters>]
Where-Object [-InputObject <PSObject>] [-Property] <String> [[-Value] <Object>] [-NE] [<CommonParameters>]
Where-Object [-InputObject <PSObject>] [-Property] <String> [[-Value] <Object>] [-LT] [<CommonParameters>]
[...]

The -InputObject parameter is the value from the pipeline. -Property is the first positional parameter. -Value is the second positional parameter.

The problem is that the -Property parameter is mandatory. You can't call this command without specifying a parameter name and there's no property name that means "this object".