| Get-Member | <var or expression> | Get-Member will display properties and methods of the object piped in; If the object represents a collection, will display properties and methods of the collection member types |
| Write-Output -NoEnumerate $arrayVar | Get-Member | Format-Table | Since Get-Member "unwraps" arrays and shows you details about their member types, you can use this if you want details about the array itself |
| Find-Module -Command X | Find module(s) containing command X |
| Get-Module | Lists modules already loaded in current session |
| Get-Module -ListAvailable | Lists all modules available for import grouped by the various paths in $env.PSModulePath |
| Get-Command [-Name "*search*"] [-Module ModName] |
Search on available cmdlets Search by command name; * = wildcard -Module "x" limits output to commands from x |
| Get-Help <cmdlet> -Full -Online |
Get full help for cmdlet (must first download) Open the web doc for the cmdlet instead |
| Start-Process powershell -Verb runAs | Start a new PS5 window as the same user with elevated privileges; run on 'pwsh' instead for PS7 |
| Ctrl + C | Force-exit currently running command or process |
| Show-Command Do-Thing | Get an interactive GUI for all args of Do-Thing |
| Get-Thing | Grid-View | Get a GUI for examining piped object / output |
| Where-Object | Filter collections by member object properties |
| $env:PSModulePath | See what paths are being used to access modules |
| $env:PSModulePath += ";<path>" | Add a new module path |
| $PSVersionTable | Holds current version of PowerShell |
| $PSScriptRoot | Holds the directory the current script is in |
| $cmd = "C:\doThing.exe" & $cmd -Arg "arg1" | Use the contents of a variable as a command |
| $someCollection | Select-Object -Property SomeProperty @{ l="CustomPropertyName"; e={$_.Name + $_.Description} } |
Select-Object takes piped input object(s) and produces output object(s) with only the specified properties from the input object. Add custom properties with custom labels by supplying (as an argument to -Property) a hash table with l or label = "property name", and e or expression = script block for calculating the property value |
| Add-Member -InputObject $someObject -NotePropertyMembers @{ MyBool = $false; MyString = "mine" } |
This works on most objects in PowerShell to add custom properties, because most objects are actually wrapped in a PSObject instance. EXCEPTION: String literals / variables set to string literals are NOT wrapped in PSObject by default, and Add-Member won't work on them. Instead, use $str = [PSObject]::AsPSObject( "my string" ) |
| Write-Host "`rThis message" -NoNewline Write-Progress ... |
`r returns to the beginning of the current line and then the write overwrites existing contents Achieves a similar goal with less flexibility |
| $cred = Get-Credential | Create a credential object via input prompts with the password stored as a secure string |
| $cred.GetNetworkCredential() | Get a network credential object from the credential object, which allows you to access the password as plain text if needed |
| $cred.Password | ConvertFrom-SecureString | Get encrypted form of password (uses the Windows DPAPI, i.e. will only be decryptable / useable by the same Windows user on the same machine) |
| [datetime]::FromFileTime($x) | Convert a Windows file time value in $x (in ticks) to a DateTime object (e.g. the AD attribute msDS-UserPasswordExpiryTimeComputed) |
| $var = "string value" $a, $b = 0 $a, $b = "a","b" |
Assign variable values in the current scope |
| $Script:var = "value" | Assign variable at Script scope |
| $Global:var = "value" | Assign variable at Global scope (PS session) |
| $var = [int]5 | Create/assign strongly typed variable |
| "This string has a $var" | Insert the variable value in the resulting string |
| "Index 3 is $($arr[3])" | Insert an expression in a string |
| Test-Path "variable:name" | Check if variable $name has been initialized at any currently accessible scope |
| Test-Path "variable:Local:name" | Check if variable $name has been initialized at the Local scope (i.e. inside a function) |
| Test-Path "variable:Script:name" | Check if variable $name has been initialized at the Script scope |
| Test-Path "variable:Global:name" | Check if variable $name has been initialized at the Global scope |
| $arr = "a", "b", "c" | Create array of three strings |
| $arr = 1..10 | Create an array with 10 integers, from 1 to 10 |
| $arr = @() | Create empty array |
| $arr[0]; $arr[-1] | Access the first array element; last array element |
| $arr[2,5+-3..-1] | Access elements at index 2, 5, and the last three |
| $both = $arr1 + $arr2 | Append arrays into a single resulting array |
| [PSCustomObject]@{x=1;y=2} | Create custom anonymous object |
| $a = 1,2,3,4; $b = 1,4,5,6 $a + $b | Select-Object -Unique $a | Where-Object { $b -contains $_ } $a | Where-Object { $b -notcontains $_ } $b | Where-Object { $a -notcontains $_ } |
List comparison operations: Union Intersection Difference (a - b) Difference (b - a) |
| $hash = @{} | Create empty hash table |
| $hash = @{ a = 1; x = "blah" } | Create hash table with two key/value pairs |
| $hash["a"] = 4 | Get/set/add a hash table value |
| $hash.Remove( "a" ) | Remove key/value pair from hash table |
| cmdlet | Command built into PowerShell written in .NET |
| function | Command written in PowerShell scripting language |
| Script | Executable (typically) PowerShell file; extension: .ps1 |
| `t, `n | Tab, Newline (` = escape character, line continuation character) |
| # Comment | Line comment |
| <# Comment #> |
Multi-line comment |
| Some‑Command > out.txt | Shortcut for piping to the Out-File command |
| $_ or $PSItem | Variable automatically populated from pipeline input. Example use: $myArray | ForEach-Object { Write-Host $_.Name } iterates over each element in $myArray and writes the Name property of each one to the console. |
| Do-It -Do:$true | Explicitly pass true/false to a command switch |
| --% | Signals to PowerShell to stop parsing input on the rest of the line as PowerShell. Useful if you're having trouble with PowerShell interfering when doing things like running an .exe with its own input argument syntax. Example: & myExe.exe --% /arg "valueWithDolla$ignsOrSomething" |
| You can use parenthetical subexpressions, e.g. Do-Thing -Arg1 (Get-Arg -SubArg) | |
| -and, -or, -not, ! | Boolean operators |
| -eq, -ne, -gt, -ge, -lt, -le | Comparison operators NOTE: All string comparisons are case insensitive by default |
| -replace | Substring replacement, e.g.: "Funk" -replace "F","St" returns Stunk Works with regex syntax, including match group refs |
| -like, -notlike | Wildcard matching (* = multiple, ? = one), e.g.: "Flunk" -like "*u?k" returns True |
| -contains, -notcontains -in, -notin |
Check if a value is in an array, e.g.: $temp = "a","b","c" $temp -contains "b" returns True "b" -in $temp returns True |
| -match, -notmatch | Regular expression matching, e.g.: "Funk" -match "^F[ui]n.$" returns True Populates $Matches with match info in the form of a hash table indexed by the match group numbers (0 = the full match) |
| if( ) {...}; elseif( ) {...}; else {...} | while() {...}; 1..10 | foreach{ $_ } |
| for( $i=0; $i -lt 10; $i++ ) {...} | foreach( $item in $var ) {...} |
| exit # exit script, even if in a function | throw "Manually thrown exception" |
| $name = Get-Content Env:\COMPUTERNAME Switch -Wildcard ( $name ) { "Comp*" { Write "starts with Comp"; break; } Default { Write "Doesn't"; } } |
|
| try { Do-Thing -ErrorAction Stop -ErrorVariable $e} catch { Write-Host $e } finally { ... } |
Try code, stop if error, store error details in $e If error occurs, run catch block with access to $e Run finally block whether or not error occurs |
| [CmdletBinding()] param( [Parameter(Mandatory=$True)] [string] $ComputerName, [int] $DriveType = 3, [switch] $IsSwitched [ValidateSet( "Test", "Prod" )] [string] $Environment, ) |
Add parameters to a .ps1 script Parameters with no default will prompt user Makes the parameter required String parameter with no default value Int parameter with a default value Switch; check with $IsSwitched.IsPresent ValidateSet creates an enum-like parameter |
| <# .SYNOPSIS Does a thing. .DESCRIPTION Here's more about the thing. .PARAMETER ParamOne This parameter does something. .PARAMETER ParamTwo This one does something else. .EXAMPLE .\Get-Thing -ParamOne localhost #> |
Syntax for adding help to a script (put it at the top) |
| function PSVerb-Noun { ... } | Create a function within a script; To add args or help, use the same syntaxes as above within the function block |
| To make your script a module... | Make sure it has one or more functions, put it here: (for Windows PowerShell) C:\Users\<you>\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\<your module>\ |
| Get-Help *function* | Doc for available features for functions |
| pwsh.exe -Command & ".\script.ps1" -Arg1 blah | Run a script with arguments from the PowerShell executable (use in Win tasks; if pwsh.exe is not in PATH, have to specify the full path to the executable in quotes) |
| Write-Verbose | Used for output only displayed in verbose mode; script must be executed with -Verbose switch |
| Write-Debug | Outputs debug message and pauses script execution; script must be executed with -Debug |
| Write-Host "message" -ForegroundColor Red -NoNewLine |
Print output to PowerShell console Set text color Remove default line break at the end of output |
| $thing = Read-Host "Enter something" -AsSecureString |
Print a prompt to console and get user input Read as a secure string |
| Do-Thing -Confirm | Force the executing host to manually confirm execution of Do-Thing within the script |
| Do-Thing -Confirm:$false | Override a confirm-by-default command |
| Start-Job -ScriptBlock { ... } | Starts a background job; results are tied to the current PS session (close it, and you lose results) |
| Get-Job | Shows all jobs tied to the current session |
| Wait-Job | Wait for one or more session jobs to complete |
| Receive-Job -Id 3 -Keep -Wait |
Load results for a background job Specifies the Job ID of the job you want Keeps results in memory to Receive-Job again Bring the job to the foreground session |
| Export-Csv | Import-Csv | Where-Object |
| Set-Location | Get-Content | Copy-Item |
| Remove-Item | New-Item | Invoke-Item |
| Invoke-WebRequest | Get-PSDrive | Get-ChildItem |
| Import-Module | Compare-Object |
| % | ForEach-Object |
| ? | Where-Object |
| > | Out-File |
| ft | Format-Table |
| ipmo | Import-Module |
| select | Select-Object |
| -EA | -ErrorAction |