Measure-Object

  • Reference
Module:
Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility

Calculates the numeric properties of objects, and the characters, words, and lines in string objects, such as files of text.

Syntax

Measure-Object
       [-InputObject <PSObject>]
       [[-Property] <String[]>]
       [-Sum]
       [-Average]
       [-Maximum]
       [-Minimum]
       [<CommonParameters>]
Measure-Object
       [-InputObject <PSObject>]
       [[-Property] <String[]>]
       [-Line]
       [-Word]
       [-Character]
       [-IgnoreWhiteSpace]
       [<CommonParameters>]

Description

The Measure-Object cmdlet calculates the property values of certain types of object. Measure-Object performs three types of measurements, depending on the parameters in the command.

The Measure-Object cmdlet performs calculations on the property values of objects. You can use Measure-Object to count objects or count objects with a specified Property. You can also use Measure-Object to calculate the Minimum, Maximum, Sum, StandardDeviation and Average of numeric values. For String objects, you can also use Measure-Object to count the number of lines, words, and characters.

Examples

Example 1: Count the files and folders in a directory

This command counts the files and folders in the current directory.

Get-ChildItem | Measure-Object

Example 2: Measure the files in a directory

This command displays the Minimum, Maximum, and Sum of the sizes of all files in the current directory, and the average size of a file in the directory.

Get-ChildItem | Measure-Object -Property length -Minimum -Maximum -Average

Example 3: Measure text in a text file

This command displays the number of characters, words, and lines in the Text.txt file. Without the Raw parameter, Get-Content outputs the file as an array of lines.

The first command uses Set-Content to add some default text to a file.

"One", "Two", "Three", "Four" | Set-Content -Path C:\Temp\tmp.txt
Get-Content C:\Temp\tmp.txt | Measure-Object -Character -Line -Word

Lines Words Characters Property
----- ----- ---------- --------
    4     4         15

Example 4: Measure objects containing a specified Property

This example counts the number of objects that have a DisplayName property. The first two commands retrieve all the services and processes on the local machine. The third command counts the combined number of services and processes. The last command combines the two collections and pipes the result to Measure-Object.

The System.Diagnostics.Process object does not have a DisplayName property, and is left out of the final count.

$services = Get-Service
$processes = Get-Process
$services + $processes | Measure-Object
$services + $processes | Measure-Object -Property DisplayName

Count    : 682
Average  :
Sum      :
Maximum  :
Minimum  :
Property :

Count    : 290
Average  :
Sum      :
Maximum  :
Minimum  :
Property : DisplayName

Example 5: Measure the contents of a CSV file

This command calculates the average years of service of the employees of a company.

The ServiceYrs.csv file is a CSV file that contains the employee number and years of service of each employee. The first row in the table is a header row of EmpNo, Years.

When you use Import-Csv to import the file, the result is a PSCustomObject with note properties of EmpNo and Years. You can use Measure-Object to calculate the values of these properties, just like any other property of an object.

Import-Csv d:\test\serviceyrs.csv | Measure-Object -Property years -Minimum -Maximum -Average

Example 6: Measure Boolean values

This example demonstrates how the Measure-Object can measure Boolean values. In this case, it uses the PSIsContainer Boolean property to measure the incidence of folders (vs. files) in the current directory.

Get-ChildItem | Measure-Object -Property psiscontainer -Maximum -Sum -Minimum -Average

Count             : 126
Average           : 0.0634920634920635
Sum               : 8
Maximum           : 1
Minimum           : 0
StandardDeviation :
Property          : PSIsContainer

Example 7: Measure strings

The following example measures the number of lines, first a single string, then across several strings. The newline character `n separates strings into multiple lines.

# The newline character `n separates the string into separate lines, as shown in the output.
"One`nTwo`nThree"
"One`nTwo`nThree" | Measure-Object -Line

One
Two
Three


Lines Words Characters Property
----- ----- ---------- --------
    3

# The first string counts as a single line.
# The second string is separated into two lines by the newline character.
"One", "Two`nThree" | Measure-Object -Line

Lines Words Characters Property
----- ----- ---------- --------
    3

# The Word switch counts the number of words in each InputObject
# Each InputObject is treated as a single line.
"One, Two", "Three", "Four Five" | Measure-Object -Word -Line

Lines Words Characters Property
----- ----- ---------- --------
    3     5

Parameters

-Average

Indicates that the cmdlet displays the average value of the specified properties.

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Character

Indicates that the cmdlet counts the number of characters in the input objects.

Note

The Word, Char and Line switches count inside each input object, as well as across input objects. See Example 7.

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-IgnoreWhiteSpace

Indicates that the cmdlet ignores white space in character counts. By default, white space is not ignored.

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:False
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-InputObject

Specifies the objects to be measured. Enter a variable that contains the objects, or type a command or expression that gets the objects.

When you use the InputObject parameter with Measure-Object, instead of piping command results to Measure-Object, the InputObject value is treated as a single object.

It is recommended that you use Measure-Object in the pipeline if you want to measure a collection of objects based on whether the objects have specific values in defined properties.

Type:PSObject
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Line

Indicates that the cmdlet counts the number of lines in the input objects.

Note

The Word, Char and Line switches count inside each input object, as well as across input objects. See Example 7.

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:False
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Maximum

Indicates that the cmdlet displays the maximum value of the specified properties.

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:False
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Minimum

Indicates that the cmdlet displays the minimum value of the specified properties.

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:False
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Property

Specifies one or more properties to measure. If you do not specify any other measures, Measure-Object counts the objects that have the properties you specify.

Type:String[]
Position:0
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:True

-Sum

Indicates that the cmdlet displays the sum of the values of the specified properties.

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:False
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Word

Indicates that the cmdlet counts the number of words in the input objects.

Note

The Word, Char and Line switches count inside each input object, as well as across input objects. See Example 7.

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:False
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

Inputs

PSObject

You can pipe objects to Measure-Object.

Outputs

Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GenericMeasureInfo, Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.TextMeasureInfo, Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GenericObjectMeasureInfo

If you use the Word parameter, Measure-Object returns a TextMeasureInfo object. Otherwise, it returns a GenericMeasureInfo object.