database-tools

Resetting Console Colors

While there are two paths for changing the console color, will you be able to revert back to the original settings once you set colors via...

Changing Console Colors

Like any other console window, PowerShell has 16 pre-defined colors that you can choose from to set background and foreground color. You can use two...

Working with Private Variables

PowerShell inherits by default variables downstream so subsequent scopes can "see" the parent variables. If you want to turn off variable...

Creating "Static" Variables

Static variables are accessible everywhere. They can be used to collect data from various scopes in one place. You can use a prefix for a variable...

Understanding Variable Inheritance

PowerShell variables are inherited downstream by default, not upstream. So any variable you create at a given scope is passed to any code you call...

Do You Use "Break"?

"Break" is a special keyword that you can use to exit loops and conditions prematurely. Have a look: Do { $pwd = Read-Host 'Enter your...

Deleting Error Records

In a previous tip, you learned that "Continue" can skip code in a loop. Another scenario for using "Continue" is error handling....

Using ‘Continue’

You will find that "Continue" is a special instruction that you can use in loops to skip the remainder of a loop. This next loop returns...

Move Groups Of Tables

I've just started to use the Schema Designer feature, and whilst handy it is driving me mad as I can't see any way of moving a group of...

Scraping Information from Web Pages

Regular expressions are a great way of identifying and retrieving text patterns. Take a look at the next code fragment as it defines a RegEx engine...

Download Web Page Content

Probably the easiest way of reading raw Web page content is using the Web client object. This will read the Web content of...

Write-Output is Picky

Assigning (multiple) return values with Write-Output works well, but you should keep in mind that Write-Output is picky and returns the exact thing...

Do You Know Write-Output?

When you leave data behind, PowerShell automatically returns it to the caller. This may create strange-looking code. With Write-Output, you can...

Use Write-Cmdlets with Care!

There is a fundamental difference between outputting data using Write-Host and just "leaving info behind":" Function test {Write-Host...

Opening Event Log GUI

In a previous tip, you learned how to register event log sources and write your own event log entries. With Show-Eventlog, you can easily open the...

Creating New Event Logs

Logging information to your event log is easy when using Write-Eventlog. You will just need to register your own event source first by using...

Running Commands Elevated

You can launch a separate PS environment and elevate it Iif you are running your script in a restricted environment and want to run a...

Prompting for Passwords

If you need to prompt for a secret password and do not want it to be visible while entered, you should use Get-Credential. This cmdlet returns a...

Finding Static Methods

You will find that types can contain very useful methods. To get a list, you can pass the type to Get-Member, but do not forget to specify the...

Identifying 64-Bit-Environments

You will find that one great advantage of 64bit-Environments is the address width of 8 bytes instead of 4 bytes. You can use this to identify...

Finding Maximum Values

Numeric types can store numbers in certain ranges. A byte for example stores values in the range 0-255. But do you know just what the range is for...

Finding Days in Month

If you need to determine the days in a given month, you can use the static DaysInMonth() function provided by the DateTime type. As you can see, the...

Finding Leap Years

You will find that the DateTime type supports a number of static methods to check dates. For example, you can check whether a year is a leap year...