asked on

powershell Formatting issues (Format-Table)

I am sure this has been answered several times over on this site:

I have a script that has about 10 columns of information. when run the script from a "Maximized" Powershell window, I get all of the output from all 10 Columns. When I run that same script from a Powershell Prompt running in "Windowed" Mode, I run into an issue where I get about 7 of the 10 columns.

Is there a way to script a function that will "Simulate" the Full Screen output inside a script running in "Windowed Mode"?

An Example of this :

$code = .\Script.ps1|ft -autosize

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if I execute the script in a minimized window, I get a truncated output in $code where if I run the same code in a Maximized Window I get the Full output stored to $code

I know you can do the following :

$code = .\Script.ps1|ft -AutoSize |Out-String -Width 4096

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This will give you the full output, however I need to be able to take

$code|out-gridview

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and have the Table structure still intact which won't happen if I convert to string. **Suggestions**?

J0rtIT

Every time that you use the "FT" this is called Format-Table, and it transforms the objects into a plain text to be displayed on the screen.

So if you want to use gridview, just don't do that.

.\Script.ps1|out-gridview

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Now if you need to have the $code variable filled, then do it like this:

$code= .\Script.ps1
#ToshowOnScreen:
$code | ft -autosize
#ToUseGrdView
$code | out-gridview

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ITguy565

ASKER

@Jose,

Thanks for replying,

If I run my script Maximized, I can get the output I want. That isn't the issue, I need to be able to run my script and get the full output of that powerhsell script when running from "Windowed Mode".

If you run the |ft -autosize it will display all of the columns when run "Maximized" it still only displays a few columns when run from "Windowed Mode"

ITguy565

ASKER

This has been on my Radar to ask for a while, I have just circumvented the question by running my scripts maximized for a while.. Problem is I can't run some of them as a scheduled task due to this limitation.

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J0rtIT

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Michael B. Smith

I'm not sure that we understand what you are asking for.

But check out the FormatEnumeration control variable in PowerShell and the -Wrap parameter to FT/Format-Table.

Qlemo

Format-Table results are "worse" than just getting plain text - they contain formatting objects, and a lot of them, which cannot have any meaning outside of the console window. Out-GridView cannot process the Format-Table result properly. So what you do and want to do is just plain wrong.

It has been said above several times - don't mix up formatting and processing results. Formatting is for the screen; processing is for doing everything else with the results. Even storing the formatted text into a text file is questionable.

Maybe you should describe what you really want to do for us to be able to provide appropriate advice?

ITguy565

ASKER

Thanks for your response guys, I will probably post my script In another question, but that is outside the scope of this particular question..

for this particular issue :

You can run any script on the task scheduler, the problem is with your output, you can get the outputs into text files, (csv or json) or HTML files, and then process those files.

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/38580.configure-to-run-a-powershell-script-into-task-scheduler.aspx

My whole point is not to use the |ft when you're wanting to get all the results because it will convert the PSObject into a Plain Text to be showed on screen and well with that you lose the object that is what you need to process the data correctly (into text (plain,csv,json) or other formats like HTML..

Was the closest answer to what I was looking for..

Thanks again guys.