EDUCBA Logo

EDUCBA

MENUMENU
  • Explore
    • EDUCBA Pro
    • PRO Bundles
    • Featured Skills
    • New & Trending
    • Fresh Entries
    • Finance
    • Data Science
    • Programming and Dev
    • Excel
    • Marketing
    • HR
    • PDP
    • VFX and Design
    • Project Management
    • Exam Prep
    • All Courses
  • Blog
  • Enterprise
  • Free Courses
  • Log in
  • Sign Up
Home Data Science Data Science Tutorials PowerShell Tutorial cmdlets in PowerShell
 

cmdlets in PowerShell

Priya Pedamkar
Article byPriya Pedamkar

Updated March 24, 2023

cmdlets in PowerShell

 

 

Introduction to cmdlets in PowerShell

Cmdlets are specialized commands in the PowerShell which implement various functions to perform specific tasks. These functions are native functions and perform various tasks. A cmdlet is a lightweight command that is used in the Windows PowerShell environment. At the time of writing any automation scripts, these commands are useful. I will tell you some examples, suppose you have some files you wanted to calculate file size, you can use PowerShell cmdlets. You want to read the file and its behaviors you can use cmdlets.

Watch our Demo Courses and Videos

Valuation, Hadoop, Excel, Mobile Apps, Web Development & many more.

Explanation of cmdlets in PowerShell

There are many cmdlets, we will discuss their uses and examples with the real world. To write a cmdlet, we must and should use a cmdlet class that derives from one of two specialized cmdlet base classes. They must be in the below format.

  • An attribute declaration is needed, and it should identify the derived class as a cmdlet.
  • Define public properties that are decorated with attributes that identify the public properties as cmdlet parameters.
  • We need to Override at least one or more than one input processing method.

Before going to discuss we should know a general syntax of it,

Syntax:

Object/file/string /numer/etc Cmdlets-name1 | Cmdlets-name1 | Cmdlets-name1

Cmdlets-name1 ,Cmdlets-name2, Cmdlets-name3 are the different cmdlets which we can use according to our requirements.

Different cmdlets in PowerShell

Let us discuss cmdlets,

1. Get-Unique

Suppose we have an array with various users and we want unique users from the list then we will use Get-unique. An example of it along with the screen is given below.

$user=”Ranjan”,”Ajay”,”Vikash”,”Akash”,”Vijay”,”Ranjan”,”Ajay”,”Akash”
$user

Output:

cmdlets in PowerShell 1-1

Here the Same user is getting repeated twice.

$user=”Ranjan”,”Ajay”,”Vikash”,”Akash”,”Vijay”,”Ranjan”,”Ajay”,”Akash”
$user |  get-unique

Output:

Get-unique

So from the above example, we can see a small command can change the whole output.

2. Sort

Sorting is one of the most important expectations of any programing language, many times we can have lakhs of records and we would like to see data in a particular order, Suppose we have some users but we want to the user in alphabetical order then we will use sort, we can use get-unique to get unique results.

$user =”Ranjan”,”Ajay”,”Vikash”,”Akash”,”Vijay”,”Ranjan”,”Ajay”,”Akash”
$user | sort | get-unique

Output:

sort

3. Measure-Object

Suppose we have one file and we want to know the numbers of lines, words, and characters on the file then we will use Measure-Object cmdlet, Measure-Object cmdlet can be used to get the properties of the passed output such as min, max, size, count, line, etc. These examples, we’re seeing the Measure-Object cmdlet in action.

Create a file sss.txt in desktop and write two-line first line “hello friend” and second line  “hello friend how are u” and execute the below command:

get-content /home/ranjan/Desktop/sss.txt | measure-object

Remember you must create a file with sss.txt to run this command else it will throw an error.

Output:

measure-object

4. Compare-Object

If you have two files and both files contain few lines with the help of Compare-Object command we can check similar lines or match lines from both the file, So in a very simple word Compare-Object cmdlet can be used to compare two objects. In the below examples, we’re seeing the Compare-Object cmdlet in action.

In this example, first, we have a file sss.txt in /home/ranjan/Desktop with content with first-line “hello friend” 2nd line “hello friend how are u” and in 3rd line “hello friend”. We created another file with the name sss1.txt  /home/ranjan/Desktop with content “hello friend”. We are going to compare lines and matches will be displayed.

Compare-Object -ReferenceObject $(Get-Content /home/ranjan/Desktop/sss.txt) -DifferenceObject $(Get-Content /home/ranjan/Desktop/sss1.txt)

Output:

cmdlets in PowerShell 1-5

5. Sort-Object

The cmdlet is used to sort objects by its properties. In these examples, we see the Sort-Object cmdlet uses with example.

$name=”Ranjan”,”Ajay”,”Vijay”,”Sujit”,”Ajeet”
$name | Sort-Object

Output:

cmdlets in PowerShell 1-6

6. Read-Host

cmdlet this command allows us to read the value from the input string. In these examples, we see the Read-Host cmdlet in action.

$city = Read-Host "Select your city please"
$city

Output:

Read-Host

Here we can see it asked to enter your city name and your enter value becomes your city name variable $city value become “Dhanbad”.

7. Start-Sleep

Suppose you want to suspend session for a few seconds then we can use “Start-Sleep”

Code:

Start-Sleep 15

Output: 

Start-Sleep

Your session will stop for 15 seconds. In these examples, we see the Start-Sleep cmdlet in action.

8. Invoke-History

At the time of work suppose you want to see history activity, forgetting the last command then we can use Invoke-History command. An example is given below,

Invoke-History

Output:

cmdlets in PowerShell 1-9

9. Write-Warning

We can customize warning messages, below are some examples,

Write-Warning "process taking more time"

Output:

cmdlets in PowerShell 1-10

10. ForEach-Object

This is a very frequently used command, suppose you have some array of students’ marks and we want to add 10 marks in each student’s marks. So for this, we have a cmdlet called ForEach-Object, an example is given below along with the screen.

$marks =1000,1002,1004,1005
$marks | ForEach-Object -Process {$_+10}

Output:

cmdlets in PowerShell 1-11

11. Get-History

This is different than Invoke-History, as in this case, we will see all activity, or list of all activity, an example of it along with the screen is given below.

In these examples, we see the Get-History cmdlet in action.

Get-history

Output:

cmdlets in PowerShell 1-12

The get-culture cmdlet is used to get the current culture set in windows. In these examples, we see the Get-Culture cmdlet in action.

get-culture

Output:

cmdlets in PowerShell 1-13

12. Invoke-Expression

We can assign an expression to a variable and can invoke that variable with its expression value, in the example below we are assigning a “Get-Process” command to variable $cmd and then invoking it with Invoke-Expression $cmd.

$cmd = ‘Get-Process'
$cmd
Invoke-Expression $cmd

Output:

cmdlets in PowerShell 1-14

Conclusion

To conclude, We have seen various commands of PowerShell, these commands are very useful in writing an automation script, with the help of these commands we can manipulate and work on any time of data and situations.

Recommended Articles

This is a guide to cmdlets in PowerShell. Here we discuss the explanation and top 12 different cmdlets of PowerShell in detail. You may also look at the following articles to learn more –

  1. PowerShell vs Command Prompt
  2. List Unix Shell Commands
  3. Add-Content in PowerShell
  4. Learn the JavaScript Sleep

Primary Sidebar

Footer

Follow us!
  • EDUCBA FacebookEDUCBA TwitterEDUCBA LinkedINEDUCBA Instagram
  • EDUCBA YoutubeEDUCBA CourseraEDUCBA Udemy
APPS
EDUCBA Android AppEDUCBA iOS App
Blog
  • Blog
  • Free Tutorials
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Log in
Courses
  • Enterprise Solutions
  • Free Courses
  • Explore Programs
  • All Courses
  • All in One Bundles
  • Sign up
Email
  • [email protected]

ISO 10004:2018 & ISO 9001:2015 Certified

© 2025 - EDUCBA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THE CERTIFICATION NAMES ARE THE TRADEMARKS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS.

EDUCBA

*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you
Loading . . .
Quiz
Question:

Answer:

Quiz Result
Total QuestionsCorrect AnswersWrong AnswersPercentage

Explore 1000+ varieties of Mock tests View more

EDUCBA

*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you
EDUCBA
Free Data Science Course

Hadoop, Data Science, Statistics & others

By continuing above step, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you
EDUCBA

*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you

EDUCBA Login

Forgot Password?

🚀 Limited Time Offer! - 🎁 ENROLL NOW