Using Symbols in Console Output

by ps1May 21, 2015

Did you know that console output can contain special icons like checkmarks? All you need to do is set the console to a TrueType font like "Consolas".

To display special characters, use the decimal or hexadecimal character code, for example:

[Char]8730


[Char]0x25BA

Or launch the built-in application "CharacterMap" to pick another iconic character in the font you selected for the console.

Here is a sample that gets you a more sophisticated prompt in the PowerShell console:

function prompt
{

  $specialChar1 = [Char]0x25ba
  
  Write-Host 'PS ' -NoNewline
  Write-Host $specialChar1 -ForegroundColor Green -NoNewline
  ' '
  
  $host.UI.RawUI.WindowTitle = Get-Location
}

Note that a "prompt" function must return at least one character, or else PowerShell uses its default prompt. This is why the function returns a single space as return value, and uses Write-Host for color-coded output.

ReTweet this Tip!

Using Symbols in Console Output

Tags