Formatting Specific Elements using Methods in PowerShell

Usage Examples

1. Check if Python is installed and output version simultaneously

$var = Get-Command python
$var = $var.Version
"" + $var.Major + '.' + $var.Minor

2. Check if Ruby is installed and output version simultaneously

$var = Get-Command ruby
$var = $var.Version
"" + $var.Major + '.' + $var.Minor

3. Format and output date

$var = Get-Date
$DATE = "" + $var.Year + $var.Month + $var.Day + $var.Hour + $var.Minute + $var.Second
$today = "" + $var.Year + '-' + $var.Month + '-' + $var.Day
echo $var $DATE $today

Output result:

July 13, 2017 2:24:25
201771322421
2017-7-13

Example with pwd

For the pwd command, as a special case, using the variable directly produces similar output.

PS C:\> pwd

Path
----
C:\

PS C:\> pwd.Path
pwd.Path : The term 'pwd.Path' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.
At line:1 char:1
+ pwd.Path
+ ~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (pwd.Path:String) [], CommandNotFoundException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException

Using it directly as shown above causes an error, but assigning it to a variable solves the problem.

$var = pwd
$var.Path

Output result:

C:\

Notes

Regarding the special case of the pwd command, it’s convenient to remember that you can get the same output with a variable that can be used directly.

Using the methods above, you can format output in PowerShell into an easy-to-read format. When you’re in trouble, please refer to this.