PowerShell: Object Type, Properties, Methods
PowerShell commands input (parameter args) and output are all .NET objects. Each .NET object has a type, and members (“member” means properties and methods.). It's critical to understand this to master PowerShell.
- A command may output multiple objects.
- Each object has a type.
- The number of objects and type depends on the command parameter. For example,
dir -namemay return many objects but all of typeSystem.String, butdirmay return many objects, some of typeSystem.IO.FileInfo, some of typeSystem.IO.DirectoryInfo.
help dir, showing types of its input and output.
help dir output, showing the types of paramater args.
Find the Types of Command Output
To find the object types of a command's output, pipe it to Get-Member (alias gm).
For each object type, Get-Member shows it only once in its output.
examples:
"abc" | Get-Member # System.String
dir | Get-Member # System.IO.DirectoryInfo, System.IO.FileInfo
Get-Date | Get-Member # System.DateTime
Get the Type of an Object
List Properties of a Given Object Type
dir -file | Get-Member -MemberType Properties
List Methods of a Given Object Type
dir -file | Get-Member -MemberType Method
Show Property Values of a Object
Show all properties and their values of a object
Get-Date | select -Property *
dir -file | select -First 1 | select -Property *
selectis alias ofSelect-Object
