PowerShell is a great enabler for those of us who don't like to work any harder than we have to. Well, maybe I should say, "for those of us who like to work more efficiently." PowerShell already comes loaded with a number of shortcuts and tricks for getting more done with less effort. Something that I always find frustrating is using object property names later in an expression. Especially property names that are a bit on the long side. For example, here is a typical command:
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PS C:\> dir c:\work\*.xml | sort LastWriteTime
Directory: C:\work
Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
---- ------------- ------ ----
-a--- 12/5/2013 4:19 PM 228 ComputerData.xml
-a--- 12/5/2013 5:31 PM 1930 csdata.xml
-a--- 12/5/2013 5:33 PM 1336 csdata2.xml
-a--- 12/6/2013 9:32 AM 1352 mydata.xml
-a--- 12/27/2013 12:39 PM 17060304 WeeklyProcs.xml
-a--- 12/30/2013 6:12 PM 3 x.xml
-a--- 2/24/2014 4:02 PM 1138 foo.xml
-a--- 2/25/2014 9:51 AM 28740 servercoremod.xml
-a--- 6/16/2014 1:32 PM 104622 windowtime.xml
I find it tedious to type LastWriteTime. One thing even I keep forgetting is that tab completion will work in this situation. I can start typing the the property name, hit the Tab key and PowerShell should expand the property. This is probably the optimal solution and something I need to make a habit.
Another alternative is to create a shortcut variable.
PS C:\> $lwt = "lastWriteTime" PS C:\> dir c:\work\*.xml | sort $lwt
The result is the same, and tab completion works on the variable name as well. Using this approach you would define these variables in your PowerShell profile. The third approach is to create your own aliases for commonly used properties.
In PowerShell 3.0 and later you can accomplish this with the Update-TypeData cmdlet.
Update-TypeData -TypeName System.IO.FileInfo -MemberType AliasProperty -MemberName sz -Value Length Update-TypeData -TypeName System.IO.FileInfo -MemberType AliasProperty -MemberName lwt -Value LastWriteTime
I've just created 2 alias properties for file objects, and yes tab completion will work with these as well.
PS C:\> dir c:\work\*.xml | sort lwt,sz | select name,sz,lwt Name sz lwt ---- -- --- ComputerData.xml 228 12/5/2013 4:19:42 PM csdata.xml 1930 12/5/2013 5:31:48 PM csdata2.xml 1336 12/5/2013 5:33:32 PM mydata.xml 1352 12/6/2013 9:32:20 AM WeeklyProcs.xml 17060304 12/27/2013 12:39:52 PM x.xml 3 12/30/2013 6:12:29 PM foo.xml 1138 2/24/2014 4:02:18 PM servercoremod.xml 28740 2/25/2014 9:51:04 AM windowtime.xml 104622 6/16/2014 1:32:03 PM
In this case, the aliases help with the sort command but perhaps not so much with the Select-Object portion of the expression. So, I might add some additional aliases, which are going to be more meaningful anyway.
Update-TypeData -TypeName System.IO.FileInfo -MemberType AliasProperty -MemberName Size -Value Length Update-TypeData -TypeName System.IO.FileInfo -MemberType AliasProperty -MemberName Modified -Value LastWriteTime Update-TypeData -TypeName System.IO.FileInfo -MemberType AliasProperty -MemberName Created -Value CreationTime
Now I can have the best of everything:
PS C:\> dir c:\work\*.xml | sort lwt,sz | select Name,Size,Created,Modified Name Size Created Modified ---- ---- ------- -------- ComputerData.xml 228 12/5/2013 2:12:22 PM 12/5/2013 4:19:42 PM csdata.xml 1930 12/5/2013 5:31:48 PM 12/5/2013 5:31:48 PM csdata2.xml 1336 12/5/2013 5:33:32 PM 12/5/2013 5:33:32 PM mydata.xml 1352 12/6/2013 8:45:48 AM 12/6/2013 9:32:20 AM WeeklyProcs.xml 17060304 12/27/2013 12:39:33 PM 12/27/2013 12:39:52 PM x.xml 3 12/30/2013 6:12:29 PM 12/30/2013 6:12:29 PM foo.xml 1138 2/24/2014 2:36:39 PM 2/24/2014 4:02:18 PM servercoremod.xml 28740 2/25/2014 9:49:59 AM 2/25/2014 9:51:04 AM windowtime.xml 104622 6/16/2014 1:32:03 PM 6/16/2014 1:32:03 PM
I put all of the Update-TypeData commands into a script, and dot source it in my profile script. Now I have some shortcuts to save some typing, even more so if I remember to use tab completion, as well as some aliases to give me more meaningful output.
Have a great week and try not to work too hard!
