database-tools

In a previous tip you learned how PropertySets can create groups of properties for easier access. Yet another (hidden) feature of PowerShell objects...

PropertySets are lists of properties, and PowerShell sometimes adds PropertySets to result objects to make picking the right information easier....

PowerShell can access web services and automatically retrieve information such as weather forecasts. New-WebServiceProxy does all the work for you,...

In a previous tip we explained how you read date and time information from WMI and convert it into a regular date and time information. With this...

WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation, Get-WmiObject) uses a specific (DTMF) format for date and time. You can easily convert regular date and...

With this line, you always get back the process object representing the current PowerShell host: PS>...

If you want error handler to handle specific error types, you can add the error type after the keyword trap or catch. However, this will only work...

To find popular first names for given decades, check out the function Get-PopularName. It accepts a decade between 1880 and 2000 and then uses the...

To create multi-line text in a script, you can simply enter the multi-line text into your script using quotes: $text = 'First Line Second Line...

PowerShell 3.0 can run both on .NET Framework 4.0 and 4.5. .NET Framework 4.5 adds additional objects and members, so for example this line will...

With a bit of creativity (and the help from the -as operator), you can create powerful test functions. These two test for valid numbers and valid...

Ever wondered what the difference between [Int], [Int32], and [System.Int32] is? They all are data types, and the first two are type accelerators,...

In PowerShell 3.0, you finally can extend object types dynamically without having to write and import ps1xml-files. Here is an especially useful...

The internal PowerShell formatting system (called ETS) relies on XML-based formatting data that comes from .ps1xml files. To see all files currently...

Let's say you want to output just your top-level processes like this: PS> Get-Process | Where-Object { $_.MainWindowTitle } | Select-Object...

PowerShell is based on .NET objects but often refines them by adding more. If you'd like to see just what PowerShell has added, use Get-Member...

Only a few properties in WMI objects are actually writeable although Get-Member insists they are all "Get/Set": PS> Get-WmiObject...

Here's a piece of code for you to wrap your head around: 1..10 | ForEach-Object { trap { Write-Host "Phew: $_"

The PowerShell 3.0 ISE editor has a simple debugger built-in that supports line breakpoints. Simply press F9 to set a breakpoint (which only works...

Did you know that every PowerShell function can be turned into a script module with just one line of code? To test drive this, open the ISE editor...

PowerShell 3.0 comes with a great new cmdlet: Invoke-WebRequest! You can use it for a zillion things, but it can also simply retrieve the content of...

If you'd have to process a long list of encoded information, let's say a list of hexadecimal values, how would you split the list into pairs...