Measure-Object
Calculates the numeric properties of objects, and the characters, words, and lines in string objects, such as files of text.
Syntax
Measure-Object
[[-Property] <PSPropertyExpression[]>]
[-InputObject <PSObject>]
[-StandardDeviation]
[-Sum]
[-AllStats]
[-Average]
[-Maximum]
[-Minimum]
[<CommonParameters>]
Measure-Object
[[-Property] <PSPropertyExpression[]>]
[-InputObject <PSObject>]
[-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 -Sum -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
Example 8: Measure all the values
Beginning in PowerShell 6, the AllStats parameter of Measure-Object
allows you to measure all
the statistics together.
1..5 | Measure-Object -AllStats
Count : 5
Average : 3
Sum : 15
Maximum : 5
Minimum : 1
StandardDeviation : 1.58113883008419
Property :
Example 9: Measure using scriptblock properties
Beginning in PowerShell 6, Measure-Object
supports ScriptBlock properties. The following
example demonstrates how to use a ScriptBlock property to determine the size, in MegaBytes, of
all the files in a directory.
Get-ChildItem | Measure-Object -Sum {$_.Length/1MB}
Example 10: Measure hashtables
Beginning in PowerShell 6, Measure-Object
supports measurement of hashtable input. The
following example determines the largest value for the num
key of 3 hashtable objects.
@{num=3}, @{num=4}, @{num=5} | Measure-Object -Maximum Num
Count : 3
Average :
Sum :
Maximum : 5
Minimum :
StandardDeviation :
Property : num
Example 11: Measure the Standard Deviation
Beginning in PowerShell 6, Measure-Object
supports the -StandardDeviation
parameter. The
following example determines the standard deviation for the CPU used by all processes. A large
deviation would indicate a small number of processes consuming the most CPU.
Get-Process | Measure-Object -Average -StandardDeviation CPU
Count : 303
Average : 163.032384488449
Sum :
Maximum :
Minimum :
StandardDeviation : 859.444048419069
Property : CPU
Example 12: Measure using wildcards
Beginning in PowerShell 6, Measure-Object
supports measurement of objects by using wildcards in
property names. The following example determines the maximum of any type of paged memory usage among
a set of processes.
Get-Process | Measure-Object -Maximum *paged*memory*size
Count : 303
Average :
Sum :
Maximum : 735784
Minimum :
StandardDeviation :
Property : NonpagedSystemMemorySize
Count : 303
Average :
Sum :
Maximum : 352104448
Minimum :
StandardDeviation :
Property : PagedMemorySize
Count : 303
Average :
Sum :
Maximum : 2201968
Minimum :
StandardDeviation :
Property : PagedSystemMemorySize
Count : 303
Average :
Sum :
Maximum : 719032320
Minimum :
StandardDeviation :
Property : PeakPagedMemorySize
Parameters
-AllStats
Indicates that the cmdlet displays all the statistics of the specified properties.
Type: | SwitchParameter |
Position: | Named |
Default value: | None |
Required: | False |
Accept pipeline input: | False |
Accept wildcard characters: | False |
-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: | None |
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: | None |
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: | None |
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: | None |
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.
The value of the Property parameter can be a new calculated property. The calculated property must be a script block. For more information, see about_Calculated_Properties.
Type: | PSPropertyExpression[] |
Position: | 0 |
Default value: | None |
Required: | False |
Accept pipeline input: | False |
Accept wildcard characters: | True |
-StandardDeviation
Indicates that the cmdlet displays the standard deviation of the values of the specified properties.
Type: | SwitchParameter |
Position: | Named |
Default value: | None |
Required: | False |
Accept pipeline input: | False |
Accept wildcard characters: | False |
-Sum
Indicates that the cmdlet displays the sum of the values of the specified properties.
Type: | SwitchParameter |
Position: | Named |
Default value: | None |
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: | None |
Required: | False |
Accept pipeline input: | False |
Accept wildcard characters: | False |
Inputs
You can pipe objects to this cmdlet.
Outputs
By default, this cmdlet returns a GenericMeasureInfo object.
When you use the Word parameter, this cmdlet returns a TextMeasureInfo object.
Notes
PowerShell includes the following aliases for Measure-Object
:
- All platforms:
measure
Starting in PowerShell 7.3, Measure-Object
no longer returns an error when
processing an object that is missing the property being measured unless you are
running in StrictMode. In StrictMode, Measure-Object
returns a
System.Management.Automation.PSArgumentException
when processing an object
that is missing the specified property.
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