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Format-Table, or FT for short, controls the formatting of the output of your Windows PowerShell commands. Whenever presentation of information is important, pipe the script's output into
Format-Table. On this
page I will show you examples of this straightforward, but important command.
Scenario: we wish to investigate processes running on workstation or a Windows Server.
Pre-requisites:
PowerShell and .Net framework are installed on your computer. You are at the prompt PS>
Or if you have PowerShell 2.0, launch the ISE.
Example 1a
Let us get started with an example using the default formatting:
# Preliminary example no Format-Table yet Get-Process
The 'problem' is that the name of the process is on the
right, and we have columns in the output which are of no interest.
Example 1b Now let me introduce Format-Table so that we
can control which properties to display in the output. Let us
suppose that we are only interested in 'Handles'.
# Example of PowerShell Format-Table Get-Process |
Format-Table processName, handles -auto
Note 1: Thanks to Format-Table we now have the name of the process in the first column.
Note 2: -auto prevents the output spreading to the full width and consequently, the -auto parameter makes the figures easier to read. To see the effect try the above command without -auto.
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About the only thing that can wrong with Format-Table is forgetting the
pipe (|) before the command. The secret is to get the main command
working then use (|) to pipe the output into Format-Table. From
there you list the names of the properties you wish to display.
Format-Table comes into its own when dealing with Get-WmiObject classes.
Because the output contains more than 5 properties the default layout is
courtesy of Format-List; I find that I like to select my properties then
call for Format-Table.
Note
3: It's not really necessary to introduce a variable, $Proc. However, one advantage of
this technique is that it
saves problems with our script word-wrapping to the next line.
Example 3a: Let us choose some different columns in the output, for example, BasePriority and HandleCount:
# Example of PowerShell Format-Table for multiple items Get-Process |
Format-Table name, handlecount,
basepriority
Example 3b: Let us see what happens is we add -auto.
# Example of PowerShell Format output for multiple items Get-Process |
Format-Table name, handlecount,
basepriority -auto
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With Microsoft, there are always at least three ways of doing everything,
what seems like redundancy when you are an expert, seems like perspective
when you are a beginner. One obvious example is that you can
abbreviate Format-Table to FT. As you increase your range of
PowerShell commands, keep an eye out for another
PowerShell Alias, for example gci (Get-Childitem).
Here are alternative methods of achieving the above objectives, each
example is designed to develop your binocular
vision, hence see the target more clearly. For example, if you experiment with format-wide and format-List you will extend your range of formatting options.
PowerShell FT Alias Examples
Example 1c [Use in conjunction
with Example 1a and 1b above]
# Example of PowerShell Format output with FT Get-Process | FT processName, handles, PagedMemorySize -auto
Learning points. You can substitute FT for
Format-Table.
Also you can research other properties, for example PagedMemorySize.
Example 2c
Clear-host Get-Process | Get-Member -Membertype method | FT name
Learning points. In addition to property, you can
research an object's method. For instance, in other scripts you may wish to employ the .kill() method.
Example 5b:
Get-Process | FT name, handlecount -groupby basepriority -auto
Learning points. It's not essential to use variables. This is a simpler example focusing on the -groupby switch.
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In addition to
Format-Table, you can display data in not one column but two or three columns. This is the format-wide or (fw) option, which is useful where you have a long list with only one field, for example:
Get-Process | Get-Member -Membertype method
|format-wide name -column 3.
The other way PowerShell
can format output is with a list. This is useful when you want to display multiple properties for one
object. Here is an example:
#Example of PowerShell Format-List Get-Process services | Format-List -property *
Note 5: What makes using the format-List worthwhile is the * (star) wildcard.
As regards our working technique for Format-Table, we have reached a crossroads. My preferred working method is to create scripts and then run them from the PowerShell command line. The other
alternative is to keep typing and re-typing the commands in the shell. My technique comes into its own when the commands are complex; as a bonus my scripts document what I do so it's easy to refer and
refine previous experiments.
If you too like this script (cmdlet) method, then first make sure PowerShell will allow script to run, you only have to do this once, type : set-executionpolicy
RemoteSigned
Assuming that I have saved example 2 in a file called proc.ps1, what I do is go to the PS prompt and type .\proc. You either have to save the script into the working directory, or
else use cd to change to the directory where the script was saved.
Presentation really does transform the output of your
PowerShell scripts. Also, when you get too much information the answer is to filter
and reduce the number of columns in the display. On other occasions, you need to display extra properties, which are not shown by the default command. In
each case, Format-Table gives you control over the presentation of your output.
While
Format-Table (or FT for short), is a ubiquitous command, it does have numerous switches. With judicious application of its
many switches, you can produce creative and effective outputs.
If you like this page then please share it with your friends
Please email me if you have a better example script. Also please report any factual mistakes, grammatical errors or broken links, I will be happy to correct the fault.
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