PowerShell

PowerShell
Notes for Professionals
®

Notes for Professionals

100+ pages
of professional hints and tricks

GoalKicker.com
Disclaimer
This is an unocial free book created for educational purposes and is
not aliated with ocial PowerShell® group(s) or company(s).
Free Programming Books All trademarks and registered trademarks are
the property of their respective owners
Contents
About ................................................................................................................................................................................... 1
Chapter 1: Getting started with PowerShell .................................................................................................... 2
Section 1.1: Allow scripts stored on your machine to run un-signed ........................................................................ 2
Section 1.2: Aliases & Similar Functions ....................................................................................................................... 2
Section 1.3: The Pipeline - Using Output from a PowerShell cmdlet ........................................................................ 3
Section 1.4: Calling .Net Library Methods .................................................................................................................... 4
Section 1.5: Installation or Setup .................................................................................................................................. 5
Section 1.6: Commenting ............................................................................................................................................... 5
Section 1.7: Creating Objects ........................................................................................................................................ 6
Chapter 2: Variables in PowerShell ..................................................................................................................... 7
Section 2.1: Simple variable .......................................................................................................................................... 7
Section 2.2: Arrays ........................................................................................................................................................ 7
Section 2.3: List Assignment of Multiple Variables ..................................................................................................... 7
Section 2.4: Scope ......................................................................................................................................................... 8
Section 2.5: Removing a variable ................................................................................................................................ 8
Chapter 3: Operators .................................................................................................................................................. 9
Section 3.1: Comparison Operators ............................................................................................................................. 9
Section 3.2: Arithmetic Operators ................................................................................................................................ 9
Section 3.3: Assignment Operators ........................................................................................................................... 10
Section 3.4: Redirection Operators ............................................................................................................................ 10
Section 3.5: Mixing operand types, the type of the left operand dictates the behavior ...................................... 11
Section 3.6: Logical Operators ................................................................................................................................... 11
Section 3.7: String Manipulation Operators .............................................................................................................. 11
Chapter 4: Special Operators .............................................................................................................................. 13
Section 4.1: Array Expression Operator ..................................................................................................................... 13
Section 4.2: Call Operation ......................................................................................................................................... 13
Section 4.3: Dot sourcing operator ............................................................................................................................ 13
Chapter 5: Basic Set Operations ......................................................................................................................... 14
Section 5.1: Filtering: Where-Object / where / ? ...................................................................................................... 14
Section 5.2: Ordering: Sort-Object / sort .................................................................................................................. 14
Section 5.3: Grouping: Group-Object / group .......................................................................................................... 15
Section 5.4: Projecting: Select-Object / select .......................................................................................................... 16
Chapter 6: Conditional logic .................................................................................................................................. 17
Section 6.1: if, else and else if ..................................................................................................................................... 17
Section 6.2: Negation .................................................................................................................................................. 17
Section 6.3: If conditional shorthand ......................................................................................................................... 18
Chapter 7: Loops ......................................................................................................................................................... 19
Section 7.1: Foreach ..................................................................................................................................................... 19
Section 7.2: For ............................................................................................................................................................ 19
Section 7.3: ForEach() Method ................................................................................................................................... 19
Section 7.4: ForEach-Object ....................................................................................................................................... 20
Section 7.5: Continue ................................................................................................................................................... 21
Section 7.6: Break ........................................................................................................................................................ 21
Section 7.7: While ......................................................................................................................................................... 22
Section 7.8: Do ............................................................................................................................................................. 22
Chapter 8: Switch statement ................................................................................................................................ 24
 Section 8.1: Simple Switch ........................................................................................................................................... 24
Section 8.2: Switch Statement with CaseSensitive Parameter ............................................................................... 24
Section 8.3: Switch Statement with Wildcard Parameter ........................................................................................ 24
Section 8.4: Switch Statement with File Parameter ................................................................................................. 25
Section 8.5: Simple Switch with Default Condition ................................................................................................... 25
Section 8.6: Switch Statement with Regex Parameter ............................................................................................ 26
Section 8.7: Simple Switch With Break ...................................................................................................................... 26
Section 8.8: Switch Statement with Exact Parameter .............................................................................................. 27
Section 8.9: Switch Statement with Expressions ...................................................................................................... 27
Chapter 9: Strings ....................................................................................................................................................... 28
Section 9.1: Multiline string .......................................................................................................................................... 28
Section 9.2: Here-string .............................................................................................................................................. 28
Section 9.3: Concatenating strings ............................................................................................................................ 28
Section 9.4: Special characters .................................................................................................................................. 29
Section 9.5: Creating a basic string ........................................................................................................................... 29
Section 9.6: Format string .......................................................................................................................................... 30
Chapter 10: HashTables ........................................................................................................................................... 31
Section 10.1: Access a hash table value by key ........................................................................................................ 31
Section 10.2: Creating a Hash Table .......................................................................................................................... 31
Section 10.3: Add a key value pair to an existing hash table .................................................................................. 31
Section 10.4: Remove a key value pair from an existing hash table ..................................................................... 32
Section 10.5: Enumerating through keys and Key-Value Pairs .............................................................................. 32
Section 10.6: Looping over a hash table ................................................................................................................... 32
Chapter 11: Working with Objects ....................................................................................................................... 34
Section 11.1: Examining an object ............................................................................................................................... 34
Section 11.2: Updating Objects ................................................................................................................................... 35
Section 11.3: Creating a new object ............................................................................................................................ 35
Section 11.4: Creating Instances of Generic Classes ................................................................................................ 37
Chapter 12: PowerShell Functions ...................................................................................................................... 39
Section 12.1: Basic Parameters ................................................................................................................................... 39
Section 12.2: Advanced Function ............................................................................................................................... 39
Section 12.3: Mandatory Parameters ........................................................................................................................ 41
Section 12.4: Parameter Validation ............................................................................................................................ 41
Section 12.5: Simple Function with No Parameters .................................................................................................. 43
Chapter 13: PowerShell Classes ........................................................................................................................... 44
Section 13.1: Listing available constructors for a class ............................................................................................ 44
Section 13.2: Methods and properties ....................................................................................................................... 45
Section 13.3: Constructor overloading ....................................................................................................................... 45
Section 13.4: Get All Members of an Instance ........................................................................................................... 46
Section 13.5: Basic Class Template ............................................................................................................................ 46
Section 13.6: Inheritance from Parent Class to Child Class ..................................................................................... 47
Chapter 14: PowerShell Modules ........................................................................................................................ 48
Section 14.1: Create a Module Manifest ..................................................................................................................... 48
Section 14.2: Simple Module Example ....................................................................................................................... 48
Section 14.3: Exporting a Variable from a Module ................................................................................................... 49
Section 14.4: Structuring PowerShell Modules .......................................................................................................... 49
Section 14.5: Location of Modules .............................................................................................................................. 49
Section 14.6: Module Member Visibility ..................................................................................................................... 49
Chapter 15: PowerShell profiles .......................................................................................................................... 50
 Section 15.1: Create an basic profile .......................................................................................................................... 50
Chapter 16: Calculated Properties ..................................................................................................................... 51
Section 16.1: Display file size in KB - Calculated Properties ..................................................................................... 51
Chapter 17: Using existing static classes ........................................................................................................ 52
Section 17.1: Adding types ........................................................................................................................................... 52
Section 17.2: Using the .Net Math Class ..................................................................................................................... 52
Section 17.3: Creating new GUID instantly ................................................................................................................ 52
Chapter 18: Built-in variables ................................................................................................................................ 54
Section 18.1: $PSScriptRoot ......................................................................................................................................... 54
Section 18.2: $Args ...................................................................................................................................................... 54
Section 18.3: $PSItem ................................................................................................................................................... 54
Section 18.4: $? ............................................................................................................................................................. 54
Section 18.5: $error ...................................................................................................................................................... 54
Chapter 19: Automatic Variables ........................................................................................................................ 56
Section 19.1: $OFS ........................................................................................................................................................ 56
Section 19.2: $? ............................................................................................................................................................. 56
Section 19.3: $null ......................................................................................................................................................... 56
Section 19.4: $error ...................................................................................................................................................... 57
Section 19.5: $pid ......................................................................................................................................................... 57
Section 19.6: Boolean values ...................................................................................................................................... 57
Section 19.7: $_ / $PSItem .......................................................................................................................................... 58
Section 19.8: $PSVersionTable ................................................................................................................................... 58
Chapter 20: Environment Variables .................................................................................................................. 59
Section 20.1: Windows environment variables are visible as a PS drive called Env: ............................................ 59
Section 20.2: Instant call of Environment Variables with $env: .............................................................................. 59
Chapter 21: Splatting ................................................................................................................................................ 60
Section 21.1: Piping and Splatting ............................................................................................................................... 60
Section 21.2: Passing a Switch parameter using Splatting ...................................................................................... 60
Section 21.3: Splatting From Top Level Function to a Series of Inner Function .................................................... 61
Section 21.4: Splatting parameters ............................................................................................................................ 61
Chapter 22: PowerShell "Streams"; Debug, Verbose, Warning, Error, Output and
Information .................................................................................................................................................................... 63
Section 22.1: Write-Output .......................................................................................................................................... 63
Section 22.2: Write Preferences ................................................................................................................................. 63
Chapter 23: Sending Email ..................................................................................................................................... 65
Section 23.1: Send-MailMessage with predefined parameters ............................................................................... 65
Section 23.2: Simple Send-MailMessage ................................................................................................................... 66
Section 23.3: SMTPClient - Mail with .txt file in body message ............................................................................... 66
Chapter 24: PowerShell Remoting .................................................................................................................... 67
Section 24.1: Connecting to a Remote Server via PowerShell ................................................................................ 67
Section 24.2: Run commands on a Remote Computer ........................................................................................... 67
Section 24.3: Enabling PowerShell Remoting ........................................................................................................... 69
Section 24.4: A best practise for automatically cleaning-up PSSessions .............................................................. 70
Chapter 25: Working with the PowerShell pipeline ................................................................................... 71
Section 25.1: Writing Functions with Advanced Lifecycle ........................................................................................ 71
Section 25.2: Basic Pipeline Support in Functions .................................................................................................... 71
Section 25.3: Working concept of pipeline ............................................................................................................... 72
Chapter 26: PowerShell Background Jobs .................................................................................................... 73
 Section 26.1: Basic job creation .................................................................................................................................. 73
Section 26.2: Basic job management ........................................................................................................................ 73
Chapter 27: Return behavior in PowerShell .................................................................................................. 75
Section 27.1: Early exit ................................................................................................................................................. 75
Section 27.2: Gotcha! Return in the pipeline ............................................................................................................. 75
Section 27.3: Return with a value ............................................................................................................................... 75
Section 27.4: How to work with functions returns .................................................................................................... 75
Section 27.5: Gotcha! Ignoring unwanted output ..................................................................................................... 77
Chapter 28: CSV parsing ......................................................................................................................................... 78
Section 28.1: Basic usage of Import-Csv ................................................................................................................... 78
Section 28.2: Import from CSV and cast properties to correct type ..................................................................... 78
Chapter 29: Working with XML Files .................................................................................................................. 80
Section 29.1: Accessing an XML File ........................................................................................................................... 80
Section 29.2: Creating an XML Document using XmlWriter() ................................................................................. 81
Section 29.3: Adding snippets of XML to current XMLDocument ........................................................................... 82
Chapter 30: Communicating with RESTful APIs ........................................................................................... 88
Section 30.1: Post Message to hipChat ...................................................................................................................... 88
Section 30.2: Using REST with PowerShell Objects to GET and POST many items .............................................. 88
Section 30.3: Use Slack.com Incoming Webhooks .................................................................................................. 88
Section 30.4: Using REST with PowerShell Objects to Get and Put individual data ............................................. 89
Section 30.5: Using REST with PowerShell to Delete items ..................................................................................... 89
Chapter 31: PowerShell SQL queries ................................................................................................................. 90
Section 31.1: SQLExample ............................................................................................................................................ 90
Section 31.2: SQLQuery ............................................................................................................................................... 90
Chapter 32: Regular Expressions ........................................................................................................................ 91
Section 32.1: Single match .......................................................................................................................................... 91
Section 32.2: Replace .................................................................................................................................................. 93
Section 32.3: Replace text with dynamic value using a MatchEvalutor ................................................................ 93
Section 32.4: Escape special characters ................................................................................................................... 94
Section 32.5: Multiple matches ................................................................................................................................... 94
Chapter 33: Aliases ..................................................................................................................................................... 97
Section 33.1: Get-Alias ................................................................................................................................................. 97
Section 33.2: Set-Alias ................................................................................................................................................. 97
Chapter 34: Using the progress bar ................................................................................................................. 98
Section 34.1: Simple use of progress bar .................................................................................................................. 98
Section 34.2: Usage of inner progress bar ............................................................................................................... 98
Chapter 35: PowerShell.exe Command-Line ............................................................................................... 100
Section 35.1: Executing a command ........................................................................................................................ 100
Section 35.2: Executing a script file ......................................................................................................................... 101
Chapter 36: Cmdlet Naming ................................................................................................................................ 102
Section 36.1: Verbs ..................................................................................................................................................... 102
Section 36.2: Nouns ................................................................................................................................................... 102
Chapter 37: Running Executables .................................................................................................................... 103
Section 37.1: GUI Applications .................................................................................................................................. 103
Section 37.2: Console Streams ................................................................................................................................. 103
Section 37.3: Exit Codes ............................................................................................................................................ 103
Chapter 38: Enforcing script prerequisites ................................................................................................. 104
Section 38.1: Enforce minimum version of PowerShell host .................................................................................. 104
Click here to download full PDF material