This PowerShell quick reference is a collection of handy PowerShell examples, some that I have found useful in my day to day tasks, others just illustrating their simplest usage as a reference. I use this page as a quick reference if I need to grab a working example for a given problem. Hopefully you will find them useful too. New examples will be added as I continue my PowerShell journey.

PowerShell Aliases

First, a word about aliases. In these examples I use both the PowerShell commands and aliases interchangeably. Here is a list of some of my favourites that you may find useful, you’ll see some of these used in the examples.

You’ll notice that a lot of these aliases look like DOS or Unix commands. This is a nice feature of PowerShell that lets new users from different backgrounds get up to speed quickly.

cat         Get-Content
cd 	        Set-Location
pwd 	    Get-Location
cls 	    Clear-Host
cp 	        Copy-Item
mv 	        Move-Item
del 	    Remove-Item
rm 	        Remove-Item
dir 	    Get-ChildItem
ls 	        Get-ChildItem
echo 	    Write-Output
write 	    Write-Output
foreach     Foreach-Object
ps 	        Get-Process

File and folder operations

This section contains handy PowerShell snippets for dealing with files and folders including a number of equivalents to common Unix commands.

Display last n lines of a file (Unix ‘tail’ equivalent)

This command will display the last 10 lines of a file. The optional -Wait flag will cause the command to wait for new lines to be added to the file in real time.

cat-Path /temp/test.log -Tail10-Wait

Display first n lines of a file (Unix ‘head’ equivalent)

This command will display the first 10 lines of a file.

cat-Path /temp/test.log -TotalCount10

Search for a string in a file (Unix ‘grep’ equivalent)

These two examples demonstrate the Select-String cmdlet – searching for the string ‘test’ in a file or recursively through all files in a set of child folders. The second example also displays the file the string is found in.

cat-Path /temp/test.log | Select-String-Pattern"test"Select-String-Path".\*"-Pattern"test"

Find a particular file in folders

This command searches recursively through folders to find the given file.

ls-Path .\* -Include my-script.js

Count the lines, words and characters in a file (Unix ‘wc’ equivalent)

This command will count the number of lines, words and characters in a file.

cat-Path /temp/test.log | Measure-Object-Character-Word-Line

Sort lines in a file (Unix ‘sort’ equivalent)

This command will sort the lines in a file and output the results.

cat-Path /temp/test.log | Sort-Object

Remove duplicate lines in a file (Unix ‘uniq’ equivalent)

This command will remove duplicate lines in a file and display the results.

cat-Path /temp/test.log | Get-Unique

Search and replace in a file (Unix ‘sed’ equivalent)

This command will search for a string in a file and and replace it with another.

cat-Path /temp/test.log | ForEach-Object { $_-replace"find", "replace" }

Write and read text to/from a file

This command will write text to a file and then read it back again.

"test" | Out-File-FilePath /temp/test.txt
Get-Content-Path /temp/test.txt
cat /temp/test.txt # alternative using cat alias

Recursively list all files in a directory

This command will recursively list all files in a directory.

Get-ChildItem-Path /temp -Recurse

Recursively list all files in a directory excluding/including specific directories and files, also include hidden and system files

Get-ChildItem-Path /temp -Recurse-Filter"test*.txt"-Exclude"testfolder1", "testfile1.txt"-Include"testfolder2", "testfile2.txt"-Force-File

Rename files in a folder to prepend name with a given string

This command will prepend all filenames in a directory with a string.

Get-ChildItem-Path /temp -Recurse | ForEach-Object { Rename-Item-Path$_.FullName -NewName"test-$_" }

Working with web content

Fetching content from a URL (Unix ‘curl’ equivalent)

Fetch web content from a given URL.

Invoke-WebRequest-Uri"https://www.codingthoughts.net"

This command will fetch the content from a URL into a file.

Invoke-WebRequest-Uri"https://www.codingthoughts.net"-OutFile /temp/test.html

Fetch the content from a URL into a variable.

$test = Invoke-WebRequest-Uri"https://www.codingthoughts.net"

Call a REST API endpoint

This command will call a REST API endpoint and display the results.

Invoke-RestMethod-Uri"https://api.github.com/users/your_github_username"

Call a REST endpoint and pass JSON parameters

$body = @{
    param1 = "abc"
    param2 = "def"
    param3 = "ghi"
}
 
$params = @{
    Method = "POST"
    Uri =  "https://www.codingthoughts.net/api/TestAction"
    Body = ($body | ConvertTo-Json) 
    ContentType = "application/json"
}

Invoke-RestMethod @params

Working with databases

Connect to a SQL Server database

This command will connect to a SQL Server database and display the results.

$connectionString = "Server=.;Database=master;Trusted_Connection=True;"$connection = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection
$connection.ConnectionString = $connectionString$connection.Open()
$command = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand
$command.Connection = $connection$command.CommandText = "SELECT * FROM mytable"$reader = $command.ExecuteReader()
$reader | Select-Object-Property *
$reader.Close()
$connection.Close()

Connect to a MySQL database

This command will connect to a MySQL database and display the results.

$connectionString = "Server=localhost;Database=master;Uid=root;Pwd=;"$connection = New-Object MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlConnection
$connection.ConnectionString = $connectionString$connection.Open()
$command = New-Object MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlCommand
$command.Connection = $connection$command.CommandText = "SELECT * FROM mytable"$reader = $command.ExecuteReader()
$reader | Select-Object-Property *
$reader.Close()
$connection.Close()

Connect to a SQLite database

This command will connect to a SQLite database and display the results.

$connectionString = "Data Source=/temp/test.db"$connection = New-Object System.Data.SQLite.SQLiteConnection
$connection.ConnectionString = $connectionString$connection.Open()
$command = New-Object System.Data.SQLite.SQLiteCommand
$command.Connection = $connection$command.CommandText = "SELECT * FROM mytable"$reader = $command.ExecuteReader()
$reader | Select-Object-Property *
$reader.Close()
$connection.Close()

Working with environment variables

This command will display all environment variables and values.

Get-ChildItem Env:

Display the value of a specific environment variable.

Get-ChildItem Env:PATH

Set an environment variable

$env:PATH = "c:\temp\bin"

Append a string to an environment variable

$env:PATH += ";c:\temp\bin"

Delete an environment variable

Remove-Item Env:PATH

Windows processes

List all running processes

Get-Process

Stop a process

This command will stop a process given a process name or ID.

Stop-Process-Name"notepad"Stop-Process-Id1234

Display details of a running process

This command will display details of a running process.

Get-Process-Name"notepad"

Dates and times

Display the current date and time

This command will display the current date and time.

Get-Date

Display the current date and time in a specific format

This command will display the current date and time in a specific format.

Get-Date-Format"yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"Get-Date-DisplayHint Date
Get-Date-DisplayHint Time

Get various elements of the current date and time

$date = Get-Date"Date:  " + $date.Date
"Hour: " + $date.Hour
"Minute: " +$date.Minute
"Second: " +$date.Second
"Ticks: " + $date.Ticks
"Year: " + $date.Year
"Day: " + $date.Day
"Day of week: "+ $date.DayOfWeek
"Day of year: "+ $date.DayOfYear

Add days, hours and minutes to a date

This command shows and example of performing arithmetic on dates.

Get-Date-Format"yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss" | Add-Date-Days1-Hours1-Minutes1

Working with system metrics

Show CPU and memory usage

This command will show CPU and memory usage.

Get-Counter-Counter"\Processor(_Total)\% Processor Time", "\Memory\Available MBytes"

Disk usage for a specific drive

Get-PSDrive-Name C

Show network usage

Get-Counter-Counter"\Network Interface(*)\Bytes Total/sec"

Network usage for a specific interface

Get-Counter-Counter"\Network Interface(*)\Bytes Total/sec" | Where-Object { $_.Path -like"*Ethernet*" }

Windows events, tasks, software and services

Windows services

These commands will list all, start and stop a Windows service.

Get-ServiceStart-Service-Name"service_name"Stop-Service-Name"service_name"

Windows scheduled tasks

This command will list all, start and stop a Windows scheduled task.

Get-ScheduledTaskStart-ScheduledTask-TaskName"task_name"Stop-ScheduledTask-TaskName"task_name"

Windows event logs

This command will list all, clear and delete a Windows event log.

Get-EventLogClear-EventLog-LogName"log_name"Remove-EventLog-LogName"log_name"

List all installed software

This command will list all installed software.

Get-ItemProperty-Path"HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*" | Select-Object DisplayName, DisplayVersion

Parsing different file types

Parse an XML file

This command will parse an XML file and display the results.

[xml]$xml = Get-Content-Path /temp/test.xml
$xml.test.test2

Parse a JSON file

This command will parse a JSON file and display results.

$json = Get-Content-Path /temp/test.json | ConvertFrom-Json$json.test.test2

Parse a CSV file

This command will parse a CSV file.

$csv = Import-Csv-Path /temp/test.csv
$csv.test.test2

Parse a YAML file

This command will parse a YAML file.

$yaml = ConvertFrom-Yaml-Path /temp/test.yaml
$yaml.test.test2

Parse a INI file

This command will parse a INI file.

$ini = Get-IniContent-Path /temp/test.ini
$ini.test.test2

Parse a properties file

This command will parse a properties file.

$properties = Get-Content-Path /temp/test.properties | ConvertFrom-Properties$properties.test.test2

Lists, hashtables and objects

Create an object

This command will create an object.

$object = New-Object-TypeName PSObject -Property@{ test = "test" }
$object.test

View object members

These commands will display all members of various objects.

$object | Get-MemberGet-ChildItem | Get-MemberGet-Date | Get-Member

Create a hashtable

This command will create a hashtable.

$hashtable = @{ test = "test" }
$hashtable.test

Sort a list

This command will sort a list both ascending and descending.

$test = 9, 2, 1, 4, 5, 12$test | Sort-Object$test | Sort-Object-Descending

Comparing files

Compare two files

Compare-Object-ReferenceObject (Get-Content-Path /temp/test1.txt) -DifferenceObject (Get-Content-Path /temp/test2.txt)

Compare two directories

Compare-Object-ReferenceObject (Get-ChildItem-Path /temp/test1) -DifferenceObject (Get-ChildItem-Path /temp/test2)

Simple programming constructs

If / else / elseif statements

if ($true) {
    "true"
} elseif ($false) {
    "false"
} else {
    "else"
}

For loop

This command will display the numbers 1 to 10.

for ($i = 1; $i-le10; $i++) { $i }

A simple for loop with a conditional statement

for ($i = 1; $i-le10; $i++) { if ($i-eq5) { break } $i }

Foreach loop

foreach ($iin1..10) {
    $i
}

While loop

$i = 1while ($i-le10) {
    $i$i++
}

Do while loop

$i = 1do {
    $i$i++
} while ($i-le10)

Switch statement

switch ($i) {
    1 { "first" }
    2 { "second" }
    default { "others" }
}

A simple example of a function with parameters