Windows PowerShell command on Get-command Measure-Object

NAME

Measure-Object

SYNOPSIS

Calculates the numeric properties of objects, and the characters, words, and lines in string objects, such as files of text.

SYNTAX

Measure-Object [[-Property] ] [-Average] [-InputObject ] [-Maximum] [-Minimum] [-Sum]

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Measure-Object [[-Property] ] [-Character] [-IgnoreWhiteSpace] [-InputObject ] [-Line] [-Word]

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DESCRIPTION

The Measure-Object cmdlet calculates the property values of certain types of object. Measure-Object performs three

types of measurements, depending on the parameters in the command.

The Measure-Object cmdlet performs calculations on the property values of objects. It can count objects and

calculate the minimum, maximum, sum, and average of the numeric values. For text objects, it can count and calculate the number of lines, words, and characters.

PARAMETERS

-Average []

Indicates that the cmdlet displays the average value of the specified properties. Required? false Position? named Default value False Accept pipeline input? False Accept wildcard characters? false

-Character []

Indicates that the cmdlet counts the number of characters in the input object. Required? false Position? named Default value False Accept pipeline input? False Accept wildcard characters? false

-IgnoreWhiteSpace []

Indicates that the cmdlet ignores white space in word counts and character counts. By default, white space is not ignored. Required? false Position? named Default value False Accept pipeline input? False Accept wildcard characters? false

-InputObject

Specifies the objects to be measured. Enter a variable that contains the objects, or type a command or expression that gets the objects.

When you use the InputObject parameter with Measure-Object , instead of piping command results to

Measure-Object , the InputObject value-even if the value is a collection that is the result of a command, such

as `-InputObject (Get-Process)`-is treated as a single object. Because InputObject cannot return individual

properties from an array or collection of objects, it is recommended that if you use Measure-Object to measure

a collection of objects for those objects that have specific values in defined properties, you use

Measure-Object in the pipeline, as shown in the examples in this topic.

Required? false Position? named Default value None Accept pipeline input? True (ByValue) Accept wildcard characters? false

-Line []

Indicates that the cmdlet counts the number of lines in the input object. Required? false Position? named Default value False Accept pipeline input? False Accept wildcard characters? false

-Maximum []

Indicates that the cmdlet displays the maximum value of the specified properties. Required? false Position? named Default value False Accept pipeline input? False Accept wildcard characters? false

-Minimum []

Indicates that the cmdlet displays the minimum value of the specified properties. Required? false Position? named Default value False Accept pipeline input? False Accept wildcard characters? false

-Property

Specifies one or more numeric properties to measure. The default is the Count property of the object. Required? false Position? 0 Default value None Accept pipeline input? False Accept wildcard characters? false

-Sum []

Indicates that the cmdlet displays the sum of the values of the specified properties. Required? false Position? named Default value False Accept pipeline input? False Accept wildcard characters? false

-Word []

Indicates that the cmdlet counts the number of words in the input object. Required? false Position? named Default value False Accept pipeline input? False Accept wildcard characters? false This cmdlet supports the common parameters: Verbose, Debug, ErrorAction, ErrorVariable, WarningAction, WarningVariable, OutBuffer, PipelineVariable, and OutVariable. For more information, see about_CommonParameters (https:/go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=113216).

INPUTS

System.Management.Automation.PSObject

You can pipe objects to Measure-Object .

OUTPUTS

Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GenericMeasureInfo, Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.TextMeasureInfo, Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GenericObjectMeasureInfo

If you use the Word parameter, Measure-Object returns a TextMeasureInfo object. Otherwise, it returns a

GenericMeasureInfo object.

NOTES

Example 1: Count the files and folders in a directory

PS C:\>Get-ChildItem | Measure-Object

This command counts the files and folders in the current directory.

Example 2: Measure the files in a directory

PS C:\>Get-ChildItem | Measure-Object -Property length -Minimum -Maximum -Average

This command displays the minimum, maximum, and sum of the sizes of all files in the current directory, and the average size of a file in the directory.

Example 3: Measure text in a text file

PS C:\>Get-Content C:\test.txt | Measure-Object -Character -Line -Word

This command displays the number of characters, words, and lines in the Text.txt file.

Example 4: Measure computer processes

PS C:\>Get-Process | Measure-Object -Property workingset -Minimum -Maximum -Average

This command displays the minimum, maximum, and average sizes of the working sets of the processes on the computer.

Example 5: Measure the contents of a CSV file

PS C:\>Import-Csv d:\test\serviceyrs.csv | Measure-Object -Property years -Minimum -Maximum -Average

This command calculates the average years of service of the employees of a company. The ServiceYrs.csv file is a CSV file that contains the employee number and years of service of each employee. The first row in the table is a header row of EmpNo, Years.

When you use Import-Csv to import the file, the result is a PSCustomObject with note properties of EmpNo and

Years. You can use Measure-Object to calculate the values of these properties, just like any other property of an

object.

Example 6: Measure Boolean values

PS C:\>Get-ChildItem | Measure-Object -Property psiscontainer -Max -Sum -Min -Average

Count : 126 Average : 0.0634920634920635 Sum : 8 Maximum : 1 Minimum : 0 Property : PSIsContainer

This example demonstrates how the Measure-Object can measure Boolean values. In this case, it uses the

PSIsContainer Boolean property to measure the incidence of folders (vs. files) in the current directory.