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Powershell Enumerate memebers of a PSObject

Hi,

I am trying to work out how to write a powershell function that can enumerate all members of a PSObject and print the Member name and its value.

So if an object has 3 properties then I might see an output like the following:

Employee_Name : Fred
Employee_Age : 18
Employee_Sex : Male

So I am trying to write really a generic function that can handle any PSOBject (or other powershell object) and work it out.

In this simple example I have provided some code.

I know C# Reflection and was wondering how powershell would do it.

So in the example below in fnTest I would like to have something like:

function fnTest($data)
{
foreach ($item in $data)
{
write-host $item.Label: $item.Value
}
}

Thanks,

Ward.

function fnTest($data)
{
	# Here is want to seperate the Item Name and its value
}
		

$employee_list = @();		
$employee1 = New-Object PSObject
$employee1 | Add-Member Noteproperty Employee_Name -Value "Fred"
$employee1 | Add-Member Noteproperty Employee_Age -Value 18
$employee1 | Add-Member Noteproperty Employee_Sex -Value "Male"
$employee_list += $employee1
$employee2 = New-Object PSObject
$employee2 | Add-Member Noteproperty Employee_Name -Value "John"
$employee2 | Add-Member Noteproperty Employee_Age -Value 22
$employee2 | Add-Member Noteproperty Employee_Sex -Value "Male"
$employee_list += $employee2
$employee3 = New-Object PSObject
$employee3 | Add-Member Noteproperty Employee_Name -Value "Jane"
$employee3 | Add-Member Noteproperty Employee_Age -Value 32
$employee3 | Add-Member Noteproperty Employee_Sex -Value "Female"
$employee_list += $employee3

foreach ($employee in $employee_list)
{
    fnTest $employee  # <-- Function to enumerate object properties.
}

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Joe Klimis

Hi you are doing well
you example is almost correct

$employee_list = @();		
$employee1 = New-Object PSObject
$employee1 | Add-Member Noteproperty Name -Value "Fred"
$employee1 | Add-Member Noteproperty Age -Value 18
$employee1 | Add-Member Noteproperty Sex -Value "Male"
$employee_list += $employee1
$employee2 = New-Object PSObject
$employee2 | Add-Member Noteproperty Name -Value "John"
$employee2 | Add-Member Noteproperty Age -Value 22
$employee2 | Add-Member Noteproperty Sex -Value "Male"
$employee_list += $employee2
$employee3 = New-Object PSObject
$employee3 | Add-Member Noteproperty Name -Value "Jane"
$employee3 | Add-Member Noteproperty Age -Value 32
$employee3 | Add-Member Noteproperty Sex -Value "Female"
$employee_list += $employee3

foreach ($employee in $employee_list)
{
    write-host "name : " , $employee.Name , "          Age: " , $employee.age , "           Sex: " , $Employee.sex

}

Open in new window

I hope this helps
joe

whorsfall

ASKER

Hi,

Thanks for your response . I think u misunderstood my question a bit. I probably should of phrased it better. I wanted the fnTest function to be able to handle any type of PSObject passed to it and be able to enumerate the members.

So if I passed a different type of object with different members eg say "car_type" and "car_color" it can enumerate the $data variable within the fnTest function.

So fnTest can handle any type of object passed to it.

Sorry for the confusion

Ward

Joe Klimis

There may better ways

but this work for your example

use it like this

detailobject $employee_list

or
detailobject (get-process)

function detailObject($object)
{
$Properties = $object | gm -type Property,noteproperty
$Pcount = $properties.count
$counter = 0
While ( $counter -lt $pcount)
{ $name = ($properties[$counter].name) 
  $value = $object[$counter].$name
  Write-host "name : $name      Value:   $Value"
$counter++
}
}

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Qlemo

Any reason you do not just use format-list * ?

Aard Vark

Yeah I don't know why you wouldn't just use Select-Object * or Format-List *. These will both achieve what you want. If you did want a function to do it though, I guess you would have a reason...

Function fnTest($data)
{
    $arrProperties = $data | GM -MemberType Properties | Select -ExpandProperty Name
    Foreach ($property in $arrProperties)
    {
        Write-Host "$($property): $($data.$property)"
    }
}

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But pretty much the output will be the same as just doing a format-list.

whorsfall

ASKER

Hi,

Thanks for your answers. The reason why I am not using the standard methods is I posted this a more simple example.

What I wanted to do in the fnTest() function later exapand it so it can automate excel using COM.

So the first row would output the columns heading then below that I would put the members each data item into to each cell.

So the first row would be headings, the next row would be employee1 and the next row
employee2 and so on.

So in the modified version I might pass the variable $employee_list.

The excel com objects need me to fill the values cell by cell.

So I could not work out how to break up each item one by one.

However if there is a better way please let me know.

Thanks,

Ward.

e.g:

$excel = New-Object -ComObject Excel.Application
$excel.Visible = $true
$workbook1 = $excel.Workbooks.Add()

# write into cell B5 (column 2, line 5):
$workbook1.ActiveSheet.Cells.Item(5,2)= "I can write directly to cells!"

# read cell content
$content = $workbook1.ActiveSheet.Cells.Item(5,2).Text
"Cell B5 content: $content"
</code>

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Qlemo

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whorsfall

ASKER

Awsome - thanks :)