PowerShell Hashtable

Introduction To PowerShell Hashtable

I think of a PowerShell's hashtable as a super array.  Whereas arrays are one dimensional, hashtables have multiple keys.  Hash tables make it easier to work with the underlying connections, they work on Key = Value pairs.

Topics for PowerShell’s Hashtable

• Introduction to PowerShell Arrays and Hashtables
• Example 1: Simple PowerShell Hashtables
• Example 2: Changing Values in a Hashtable
• Example 3: Hashtable to List Services
• Summary of PowerShell Hashtable

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Introduction to PowerShell Arrays and Hashtables

Before I deal with hashtables, here are some simple examples of arrays.

Array @(Parenthesis)

You could think of an array as a one dimensional hashtable, however, the analogy is not perfect, and is let down by the fact that PowerShell arrays use (parenthesis) whereas hashtables use {braces}.

Note 1: The ‘At’ symbol (@) is mandatory for introducing both arrays and hashtables.

Hashtable @{Curly Braces}

A hashtable is also know as an associative array, a dictionary, Key = Value pairs.

Note 2: You need that @ ‘At’ before the curly brackets.  While PowerShell normally uses -eq, hashtables require the old fashioned = sign between the key and its value.  Most hashtables will have multiple keys, these are separated by semi-colons (;). 

Example 1: Simple PowerShell Hashtables

Note 3: By assigning the hashtable to a variable you can access the value of individual keys.  Naturally, this is more useful where you have lots of Key = Value pairs.

Example 1b: Interrogating the Hashtable

Note 4: In addition to accessing the value by its $variable.key, you can return a count of all the keys.

Example 1c: A Hashtable Featuring Books

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Example 2: Changing Values in a Hashtable

The scenario: We have a hash table, but we wish to change some of the values from 5 to 3.  We would also like to sort the results.

How to Sort a Hashtable
Learning Point: Observe the importance of .GetEnumerator.

Note 5: $Status | Sort-Object value, just would not work, you need that .GetEnumerator() method.

Example 3: PowerShell  -AsHashTable to List Services That Should Have Started

The purpose of this real-life hashtable example is to identify which Windows services are set to Auto start, but are in fact stopped.  -AsHashTable is a parameter of Group-Object.

Note 6: This example uses Group-Object’s -AsHashTable parameter to leverage data supplied by WMI.

Note 7: See more on the use of PowerShell’s $_ variable.

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Example 4: Get-WinEvent -FilterHashTable

Get-WinEvent has a -FilterHashTable parameter so that you can refine the output.  Example 3 shows how to filter on just two properties, it would be easy to add more criteria.

Note 8: The syntax has a few surprises; a) There is no hyphen before the Logname parameter.  b) It uses the = (equals sign) and not -eq.  Also remember the overall PowerShell hashtable format @{Filter="criteria"}.

See more on PowerShell Event Logs »

Help About_Hashtables

Amongst PowerShell's many 'About' files is one dedicated to Hashtables.  It reminds us that object types in HashTables can use any .NET object type in their keys or values.

See more PowerShell Help About »

Summary of PowerShell Hashtable

It’s the ‘At’ that introduces a hashtable.  Whereas arrays are one dimensional, hashtables can have multiple keys.  Hashtables make it easier to work with the underlying connections and they work on Key = Value pairs.

See more PowerShell examples for syntax advice

• PowerShell Syntax  • PowerShell Array  • PowerShell Array String Conversion  • Plist

• Get-Date  • PowerShell Quotes  • PowerShell variables  • RegEx  • PowerShell functions

• PowerShell Tutorials  • Conditional operators  • PowerShell Hashtable   • Windows PowerShell

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.