Properties

 

SHORT DESCRIPTION

Using object properties in the Windows PowerShell

 

LONG DESCRIPTION

PowerShell uses structured collections of information, called objects, to represent items in data stores or the state of the computer. For example, when you access a file in PowerShell, you're not working with the actual file, but instead you're working with a FileInfo object, a type of object that acts as the file's proxy.

 

Most objects are associated with a set of properties. A property is data associated with an object that specifies a particular state of that object. In other words, each property describes a specific aspect of that object. For instance, the FileInfo object includes a property called Length, which describes the size of the file represented by the object.

 

To view a list of properties associated with a particular object, you can use the Get-Member Cmdlet. However, to use the Cmdlet, the object must already exist in some form, either as represented through a variable or as an object passed down a pipeline. For example, suppose that the $a variable has been assigned a string value, which means that the variable is associated with a string object. To view a list of the object's properties, enter the following command at the PowerShell command prompt:

 

 

If you want to see what properties are associated with an object that is passed down the pipeline, you would use a Get-Member command within the pipeline, as shown in the following example:

 

 

Note that the final.txt file must exist on the root of the C: drive for this example to work.

 

PowerShell objects can also include special properties known as note properties, which are inherited from the PowerShell environment. Note properties provide additional information about an object that is not part of the regular properties. For example, the PsIsContainer note property tells you whether or not an item is a container.

 

To view a list of note properties for a particular object, specify the NoteProperty value as an argument to the -MemberType parameter, as shown in the following example:

 

 

The most common way to access an object's property is to specify the property name after an object reference (such as a variable or expression). You must separate the object reference and the property with a period.

 

For example, the following command displays the size (in bytes) of a file named final.txt:

 

 

The Get-ChildItem command returns a FileInfo object that is associated with the final.txt file. Because the object contains the length property, you can access the file's size through that property.

 

You can also access properties through objects associated with variables, as shown in the following example:

 

 

The first line of code creates and declares the $a variable by setting the value of the variable to the results returned by the Get-ChildItem Cmdlet for the final.txt file in the c:\techdocs directory. The second line of code returns the values of three properties associated with the object. The FullName property returns the file's fully qualified path name. The Length property returns the size of the file in bytes. The LastWriteTime property returns the date and time that the file was last updated. As you can see, you can use the variable repeatedly to access different properties of the object.

 

SEE ALSO

For information about objects, enter the following command:

 

 

For information about the Get-Member Cmdlet, enter the following command: