Returning complex object with PowerShell functions?

Question

Most of out of the box PowerShell commands are returning "complex" objects.

for example, Get-Process returns an array of System.Diagnostics.Process.

All of the function I've ever wrote was returning either a simple type, or an existing kind of object.

If I want to return a home made objects, what are guidelines ?

For example, imagine I have an object with these attributes: Name, Age. In C# I would have wrote

public class Person {
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public uint Age { get; set; }
}

What are my options for returning such object from a PowerShell function ?

As my goal is to create PowerShell module, should I move to a c# module instead of a ps1 file ?
should I compile such objects in a custom DLL and reference it in my module using LoadWithPartialName ?
Should I put my class in a powershell string, then dynamically compile it ?

walid2mi · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-23 16:41:37Z

11

you can use this syntax:

New-Object PSObject -Property @{
   Name = 'Bob'
   Age = 32
}

answered May 23, 2012 at 16:41

walid2mi

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Comments

EBGreen · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-23 15:35:18Z

There are a few options for creating your own object with custom properties. It is also possible to extend existing objects with additional properties. The most explicit method is to use the Add-Member cmdlet:

$test = New-Object PSCustomObject
Add-Member -InputObject $test -Name Name -Value 'Bob' -MemberType NoteProperty
Add-Member -InputObject $test -Name Age -Value 32 -MemberType NoteProperty

You can also use the fact that objects can be extended combined with the fact that Select-Object can implicitly add properties to objects in the pipeline:

$test = '' | Select @{n='Name'; e={'Bob'}}, @{n='Age'; e={32}}

Personally I prefer the first method since it is more explicit and less hand waving magic, but at the end of the day it's a scripting language so whatever works is the right way to do it.

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