Open Up Vast • The Lonely Administrator

I just lately learn a terrific submit from Mike F. Robbins about utilizing Format-Vast to show strings. Format-Vast is a type of cmdlets that I don’t suppose will get a lot use. This can be a disgrace as a result of it definitely fulfills a necessity. However as Mike factors out, when you’ve got an inventory of strings, Format-Vast requires somewhat further work, which Mike demonstrates. I made a decision to take his thought and run with it. Wouldn’t or not it’s simpler to have a perform?

Right here’s a PowerShell perform based mostly on Mike’s notes.

Perform Out-WideString {
    [cmdletbinding(DefaultParameterSetName = "autosize")]
    [alias("ows")]
    Param(
        [Parameter(ValueFromPipeline, HelpMessage = "The strings to display in a wide format.")]
        [string]$InputObject,
        [Parameter(ParameterSetName = "columns", HelpMessage = "The number of columns to display the strings in. The default is 3")]
        [int]$Columns = 3,
        [Parameter(ParameterSetName = "autosize", HelpMessage = "Autosize the output.")]
        [switch]$AutoSize
    )
    Start {
        Write-Verbose "[$((Get-Date).TimeofDay) BEGIN  ] Beginning $($myinvocation.mycommand)"

        #initalize a set to carry the incoming strings
        $strings = [System.Collections.Generic.list[string]]::new()

        #outline a hashtable to splat to Format-Vast on the finish
        $fw = @{
            Pressure    = $true
            Property = { $_ }
        }
        Write-Verbose "[$((Get-Date).TimeofDay) BEGIN  ] Detected parameter set $($PSCmdlet.ParameterSetName)"
        if ($pscmdlet.ParameterSetName -eq 'AutoSize') {
            Write-Verbose "[$((Get-Date).TimeofDay) BEGIN  ] Autosizing output"
            $fw.Add("Autosize", $true)
        }
        else {
            Write-Verbose "[$((Get-Date).TimeofDay) BEGIN  ] Setting column width to $Columns"
            $fw.Add("Column", $Columns)
        }
    } #start

    Course of {
        Write-Verbose "[$((Get-Date).TimeofDay) PROCESS] Including $InputObject"
        $strings.add($InputObject)
    } #course of

    Finish  Format-Vast @fw
        Write-Verbose "[$((Get-Date).TimeofDay) END    ] Ending $($myinvocation.mycommand)"
     #finish

} #shut Out-WideString

The perform assumes you’ll pipe a sequence of strings. The perform parameters mirror these of Format-Vast.

The default conduct is to autosize the output.

Or you may specify the variety of columns.

As with the opposite Out cmdlets, you may’t do something with the output of Out-WideString aside from ship it to a file or printer.

Get-Content material C:scriptswomen.txt | Out-WideString | out-file c:worknames.txt

Thanks, Mike, for the tip. In case you have any questions on how my perform works, be at liberty to depart a remark.