Hello and good morning(:
I'm looking to see if I'm able to jump to somewhere in PS without wrapping it in a ScriptBlock; hell, I'd even be okay with that but, I'm just unsure on how to go about it.
What I'm trying to do is: add a Parameter Set to a function and if something is supplied to the parameter -GrpSelec(I know imma change it), then just skip the rest of the script and go to my $swap variable to perform the switch.
$Group1 = #("1st Group", "2nd Group")
$Group2 = #("3rd Group", "4th Group")
Function Test-Group{
param(
[ValidateSet("Group1","group2")]
[array]$GrpSelec)
if($GrpSelec){ &$swap }
$AllGroups = #("Group1", "Group2")
for($i=0; $i -lt $AllGroups.Count; $i++){
Write-Host "$($i): $($AllGroups[$i])"}
$GrpSelec = Read-Host -Prompt "Select Group(s)"
$GrpSelec = $GrpSelec -split " "
$swap = Switch -Exact ($GrpSelec){
{1 -or "Group1"} {"$Group1"}
{2 -or "Group2"} {"$Group2"}
}
Foreach($Group in $swap){
"$Group"}
}
Is something like this even possible?
I've googled a couple of similar questions which point to the invocation operator &(as shown above), and/or, a foreach which is definitely not the same lol.
take it easy on me, im just experimenting(:
How about a simple if statement?
function Test-Group {
param(
[string[]]$GrpSelec
)
if(!$PSBoundParameters.ContainsKey('GrpSelect')){
# no argument was passed to -GrpSelec,
# populate $GrpSelec in here before proceeding with the rest of the script
}
# Now that $GrpSelec has been populated, let's do the work
$swap = Switch -Exact ($GrpSelec){
{1 -or "Group1"} {"$Group1"}
{2 -or "Group2"} {"$Group2"}
}
# rest of function
}
Related
I want to create the "Select-Multiple" function.
The function takes some parameters, but the most important one is the list of options.
Let's say
#("First Option", "Second Option")
Then the function will display something like:
a All
b First Option
c Second Option
d Exit
Choose your option: > ...
The "Choose your option: > ..." text, will be repeated as long as:
User choose "All" or "Exit" option
User will choose all possible options (other than "All" and "Exit")
At the end the function returns the List of options chosen by the user.
Simple. But... I'd like to highlight the options already chosen by the user.
So if the user chose "b", then "b First Option" gets green colour.
Is it possible to do something like that, without using Clear-Host, as I don't want to clear previous steps?
I attach you my "Select-Multiple" function in powershell, sorry if that's ugly written, but I don't use powershell that often.
function Select-Multiple {
Param(
[Parameter(Mandatory=$false)]
[string] $title,
[Parameter(Mandatory=$false)]
[string] $description,
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
[ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
$options,
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
[string] $question
)
if ($title) {
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow $title
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow ("-"*$title.Length)
}
if ($description) {
Write-Host $description
Write-Host
}
$chosen = #()
$values = #()
$offset = 0
$all = "All"
$values += #($all)
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow "$([char]($offset+97)) " -NoNewline
Write-Host $all
$offset++
$options.GetEnumerator() | ForEach-Object {
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow "$([char]($offset+97)) " -NoNewline
$values += #($_)
Write-Host $_
$offset++
}
$exit = "Exit"
$values += #($exit)
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow "$([char]($offset+97)) " -NoNewline
Write-Host $exit
$answer = -1
while($chosen.Count -ne $options.Count) {
Write-Host "$question " -NoNewline
$selection = (Read-Host).ToLowerInvariant()
if (($selection.Length -ne 1) -or (([int][char]($selection)) -lt 97 -or ([int][char]($selection)) -gt (97+$offset))) {
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red "Illegal answer. " -NoNewline
}
else {
$answer = ([int][char]($selection))-97
$value = $($values)[$answer]
if ($value -eq $exit) {
return $chosen
}
if ($value -eq $all) {
return $options
}
else {
if ($chosen.Contains($value)) {
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red "The value $value was already chosen."
}
else {
$chosen += ($value)
}
}
}
if ($answer -eq -1) {
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red "Please answer one letter, from a to $([char]($offset+97))"
}
$answer = -1;
}
return $chosen
}
Because of how the console window works, you can't just recolor an existing line. Once you've written something to the console, the only way you can modify it is by overwriting it. This is no different when applying colors.
To understand why this is the case, let's go over how text is colored in PowerShell. Let's use the following command as an example:
Write-Host "Test" -ForegroundColor Green
Here is a (simplified) step by step overview of what this command will do:
Set the ForegroundColor property of the console to green
Write "Test" to the console
Set the ForegroundColor property of the console to whatever it was previously
This explains why we are unable to change the color of text that has already been written to the console. If you want to color a piece of text, you are required to set the console color before writing the text to the console.
However, there are a couple ways to create the same visual effect. In fact there are exactly two ways. One of them is clearing the console and re-writing everything which you mentioned you don't want to do, so let's talk about the other way first.
Overwriting Individual Lines
Let me preface this by saying that this does not work very well with the PowerShell ISE. If you decide to use this, you will have to debug it by either using the normal PowerShell console, or an IDE that supports this. This is also the more complicated option, so if you don't want to deal with the complexity of it, the second option would be the way to go.
The console window allows you to retrieve and set the cursor position by using Console.CursorLeft and Console.CursorTop. You can also use Console.SetCursorPosition() if you need to set both of them at the same time. There is also $Host.UI.RawUI.CursorPosition, but it's long and has some strange side effects when paired with Read-Host, so I would not recommend using it. When you write output to the console, it will write the output to wherever the cursor happens to be. We can use this to our advantage by setting the cursor's position to the beginning of the line we want to change the color of, then overwriting the normal text with colored text or vice versa.
In order to do this, all we need to do is keep track of which option is on which line. This is pretty simple, especially if you have an array of options that is in the same order that you printed them to the console in.
Here is a simple script I made that does exactly this:
$options = $("Option 1", "Option 2", "Option 3")
$initialCursorTop = [Console]::CursorTop
# An array to keep track of which options are selected.
# All entries are initially set to $false.
$selectedOptionArr = New-Object bool[] $options.Length
for($i = 0; $i -lt $options.Length; $i++)
{
Write-Host "$($i + 1). $($options[$i])"
}
Write-Host # Add an extra line break to make it look pretty
while($true)
{
Write-Host "Choose an option>" -NoNewline
$input = Read-Host
$number = $input -as [int]
if($number -ne $null -and
$number -le $options.Length -and
$number -gt 0)
{
# Input is a valid number that corresponds to an option.
$oldCursorTop = [Console]::CursorTop
$oldCursorLeft = [Console]::CursorLeft
# Set the cursor to the beginning of the line corresponding to the selected option.
$index = $number - 1
[Console]::SetCursorPosition(0, $index + $initialCursorTop)
$choice = $options[$index]
$isSelected = $selectedOptionArr[$index]
$choiceText = "$($number). $($choice)"
if($isSelected)
{
Write-Host $choiceText -NoNewline
}
else
{
Write-Host $choiceText -ForegroundColor Green -NoNewline
}
$selectedOptionArr[$index] = !$isSelected
[Console]::SetCursorPosition($oldCursorLeft, $oldCursorTop)
}
# Subtract 1 from Y to compensate for the new line created when providing input.
[Console]::SetCursorPosition(0, [Console]::CursorTop - 1)
# Clear the input line.
Write-Host (' ' * $Host.UI.RawUI.WindowSize.Width) -NoNewline
[Console]::CursorLeft = 0
}
The main advantage of this approach is that it doesn't need to clear the entire console in order to update text. This means you can display whatever you want above it without worrying about it being cleared every time the user inputs something. Another advantage is that this performs a minimal number of operations in order to accomplish the task.
The main disadvantage is that this is relatively volatile. This requires you to use exact line numbers, so if something happens that offsets some of the lines (such as one option being multiple lines), it will more than likely cause some major issues.
However, these disadvantages can be overcome. Since you have access to $Host.UI.RawUI.WindowSize.Width which tells you how many characters you can put on a single line, we know that any string with a length greater than this will be wrapped onto multiple lines. Another option is just to keep track of which line the cursor starts on, then you can clear all text between the starting position and where the cursor currently is.
Clearing the Console
This approach is much simpler because you don't have to worry about what is on which line or where the cursor is at all. The idea is that you simply clear the entire console, then re-write everything with the changes you want to make. This is the nuclear approach, but it's also the most reliable.
Here is the same example as above using this approach instead:
$options = $("Option 1", "Option 2", "Option 3")
# An array to keep track of which options are selected.
# All entries are initially set to $false.
$selectedOptionArr = New-Object bool[] $options.Length
while($true)
{
Clear-Host
for($i = 0; $i -lt $options.Length; $i++)
{
if($selectedOptionArr[$i])
{
Write-Host "$($i + 1). $($options[$i])" -ForegroundColor Green
}
else
{
Write-Host "$($i + 1). $($options[$i])"
}
}
Write-Host # Add an extra line break to make it look pretty
Write-Host "Choose an option>" -NoNewline
$input = Read-Host
$number = $input -as [int]
if($number -ne $null -and
$number -le $options.Length -and
$number -gt 0)
{
# Input is a valid number that corresponds to an option.
$index = $number - 1
$choice = $options[$index]
$selectedOptionArr[$index] = !$selectedOptionArr[$index]
}
}
The main advantage of this approach is that it's super simple and easy to understand.
The main disadvantage is that this clears the entire console every time the user inputs something. In most cases this isn't a huge problem, but it can be with large data sets.
I agree with Trevor Winge, I it is most likely not possible to change earlier console outputs appearance, but it is for certain not worth your while. There are certain limitations of the console, and that is ok since that is what GUIs are for. I hope you feel encouraged by this situation to look into Windows.Froms or WPF. Make use of the controls! checkboxes would be interesting for your scenario. I know that is not exactly what you asked for, but it is garanteed a journey that is worth your time. When i started my first GUI with powershell, i was astonished how much i could accomplish with little afford. Stackoverflow is full of examples.
Is there something we can use in PowerShell to ask users to select one item from an array of items? For example, I like how Inquirer.js can do it.
I have also seen PoshGui, but it seems too much work to create just a simple prompt.
The reason we want something similar is that we need to provide deployment scripts for our clients and make deployment guides as easy as possible. Asking users to select one item on a screen is much better than asking them to insert some guid to a config file.
Do you have any suggestions for user prompts for arrays?
You can also try ps-menu module:
https://www.powershellgallery.com/packages/ps-menu
Sample:
I've used the Out-GridView cmdlet for this in the past. When used with the -PassThru switch it allows the selected item to be passed to a variable. The example image you've shown, when written using Out-GridView (ogv if you want to use the alias) is:
$task = Read-Host -Prompt "What do you want to do?"
if ($task -eq "Order a pizza") {
$pizza_sizes = #('Jumbo','Large','Standard','Medium','Small','Micro')
$size = $pizza_sizes | Out-GridView -Title "What size do you need?" -PassThru
Write-Host "You have selected $size"
}
There are many considerations to take into account with this, the windows might not appear where you want them to and they may appear behind others. Also, this is a very simple example that obviously needs error handling and other aspects built in. I'd suggest some testing or to get a second opinion from others on SO.
You can be as creative as you like of course..
Here's a small function that builds a console menu:
function Simple-Menu {
Param(
[Parameter(Position=0, Mandatory=$True)]
[string[]]$MenuItems,
[string] $Title
)
$header = $null
if (![string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($Title)) {
$len = [math]::Max(($MenuItems | Measure-Object -Maximum -Property Length).Maximum, $Title.Length)
$header = '{0}{1}{2}' -f $Title, [Environment]::NewLine, ('-' * $len)
}
# possible choices: didits 1 to 9, characters A to Z
$choices = (49..57) + (65..90) | ForEach-Object { [char]$_ }
$i = 0
$items = ($MenuItems | ForEach-Object { '[{0}] {1}' -f $choices[$i++], $_ }) -join [Environment]::NewLine
# display the menu and return the chosen option
while ($true) {
cls
if ($header) { Write-Host $header -ForegroundColor Yellow }
Write-Host $items
Write-Host
$answer = (Read-Host -Prompt 'Please make your choice').ToUpper()
$index = $choices.IndexOf($answer[0])
if ($index -ge 0 -and $index -lt $MenuItems.Count) {
return $MenuItems[$index]
}
else {
Write-Warning "Invalid choice.. Please try again."
Start-Sleep -Seconds 2
}
}
}
You can use it like below:
$menu = 'Pizza', 'Steak', 'French Fries', 'Quit'
$eatThis = Simple-Menu -MenuItems $menu -Title "What would you like to eat?"
switch ($eatThis) {
'Pizza' {
$menu = 'Jumbo', 'Large', 'Standard', 'Medium', 'Small', 'Micro'
$eatThat = Simple-Menu -MenuItems $menu -Title "What size do you need?"
Write-Host "`r`nEnjoy your $eatThat $eatThis!`r`n" -ForegroundColor Green
}
'Steak' {
$menu = 'Well-done', 'Medium', 'Rare', 'Bloody', 'Raw'
$eatThat = Simple-Menu -MenuItems $menu -Title "How would you like it cooked?"
Write-Host "`r`nEnjoy your $eatThat $eatThis!`r`n" -ForegroundColor Green
}
'French fries' {
$menu = 'Mayonaise', 'Ketchup', 'Satay Sauce', 'Piccalilly'
$eatThat = Simple-Menu -MenuItems $menu -Title "What would you like on top?"
Write-Host "`r`nEnjoy your $eatThis with $eatThat!`r`n" -ForegroundColor Green
}
}
Result:
All of the answers are correct, but I also wrote a few reusable PowerShell helper functions. Readme. I auto-generate basic looking WinForms. Looks ugly, but works.
https://github.com/Zerg00s/powershell-forms
$selectedItem = Get-FormArrayItem (Get-ChildItem)
$Delete = Get-FormBinaryAnswer "Delete file?"
$newFileName = Get-FormStringInput "Enter new file name" -defaultValue "My new file"
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Prepare the list of inputs that user needs to populate using an interactive form
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
$preDeployInputs = #{
suffix = ""
SPSiteUrl = "https://ENTER_SHAREPOINT_SITE.sharepoint.com"
TimeZone = "Central Standard Time"
sendGridRegistrationEmail = "ENTER_VALID_EMAIL_ADDRESS"
sendGridRegistrationPassword = $sendGridPassword
sendGridRegistrationCompany = "Contoso & Tailspin"
sendGridRegistrationWebsite = "https://www.company.com"
fromEmail = "no-reply#DOMAIN.COM"
}
$preDeployInputs = Get-FormItemProperties -item $preDeployInputs -dialogTitle "Fill these required fields"
Unfortunately, there's little that is built in, and that little is hard to discover - see below.
Potentially providing a dedicated Read-Choice cmdlet or enhancing Read-Host is being discussed in GitHub issue #6571.
The $host.ui.PromptForChoice() method supports presenting a menu of choices, but it has limitations:
The choices are presented on a single line (which may wrap).
Only single-character selectors are supported.
The selector character must be a part of the menu-item text.
Submitting a selection always requires pressing Enter
A ? option is invariably offered, even if you don't want to / need to provide explanatory text for each menu item.
Here's an example:
# The list of choices to present.
# Specfiying a selector char. explicitly is mandatory; preceded it by '&'.
# Automating that process while avoiding duplicates requires significantly
# more effort.
# If you wanted to include an explanation for each item, selectable with "?",
# you'd have to create each choice with something like:
# [System.Management.Automation.Host.ChoiceDescription]::new("&Jumbo", "16`" pie")
$choices = '&Jumbo', '&Large', '&Standard', '&Medium', 'Sma&ll', 'M&icro'
# Prompt the user, who must type a selector character and press ENTER.
# * Each choice label is preceded by its selector enclosed in [...]; e.g.,
# '&Jumbo' -> '[J] Jumbo'
# * The last argument - 0 here - specifies the default index.
# * The default choice selector is printed in *yellow*.
# * Use -1 to indicate that no default should be provided
# (preventing empty/blank input).
# * An invalid choice typed by the user causes the prompt to be
# redisplayed (without a warning or error message).
$index = $host.ui.PromptForChoice("Choose a Size", "Type an index and press ENTER:", $choices, 0)
"You chose: $($choices[$index] -replace '&')"
This yields something like:
How can I script "Does String -contains -not _" / "Does the string contain anything other than _"?
I'm not stuck as I've found a good enough work around. More curiosity than anything else.
Example:
$String = 1,1,1,2,5
$String -contains !(1)
This always comes up False
My solution at the moments is to remove the 1's and see if it's null like so:
$String2 = $String -ne 1
if ([String]::IsNullOrEmpty($String2)) {
Write-Host "True"
} else {
Write-Host "False"
}
Real World Example:
My script is designed to try a certain action until it works. In this case get-msoluser.
At the end of my script I want to count any errors (and list them later) but there will always be an error listed for "get-msoluser" as it fails until it works. So I'm trying to not include that certain error in the count.
$Errors = $Error.InvocationInfo.MyCommand.Name
if ($Errors -contains !("get-msoluser")) {
Write-Host "There was an error I actually care about"
}
INSTEAD I have to do this:
$Errors = $Error.InvocationInfo.MyCommand.Name
$ErrorsICareAbout = $Errors -ne "get-msoluser"
if ([String]::IsNullOrEmpty($ErrorsICareAbout)) {
Write-Host "$ErrorsICareAbout.Count"
} else {
Write-Host "There were errors you actually cared about"
}
Am I missing something that's right under my nose?
You simply need to use -notcontains or add the not operator around then entire -contains comparison like this:
If ($Errors -notcontains ("get-msoluser"))
or
If (!($Errors -contains ("get-msoluser")))
Rather than filtering out the error, try not producing an error in the first place. To suppress errors from a particular command, you can set the error action to SilentlyContinue.
Write-Error 'fail' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
So in the case of retrying until Get-MsOlUser works, you could use something like
while($msolUser -eq $null) {
$msolUser = Get-MsOlUser ... -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
#Wait a second before retrying.
Start-Sleep -Seconds 1
}
#Now work with $msolUser
(You probably also want to put an upper limit on the number of retries)
Very new to coding in general, so I fear I am missing something completely obvious. I want my program to check for a file. If it is there, just continue the code. If it has not arrived, continue cheking for a given amount of time, or untill the file shows up. My loop works on its own, so when i only select the do-part in Powershell ISE, it works. But when i try running it inside the if statement, nothing happens. The loops doesnt begin.
$exists= Test-Path $resultFile
$a = 1
if ($exists -eq "False")
{
do
{
$a++
log "Now `$a is $a "
start-sleep -s ($a)
$exists= Test-Path $resultFile
write-host "exists = $exists"
}
while (($a -le 5) -and ($exists -ne "True"))
}
Another way of doing this is using a while loop:
$VerbosePreference = 'Continue'
$file = 'S:\myFile.txt'
$maxRetries = 5; $retryCount = 0; $completed = $false
while (-not $completed) {
if (Test-Path -LiteralPath $file) {
Write-Verbose "File '$file' found"
$completed = $true
# Do actions with your file here
}
else {
if ($retryCount -ge $maxRetries) {
throw "Failed finding the file within '$maxRetries' retries"
} else {
Write-Verbose "File not found, retrying in 5 seconds."
Start-Sleep '5'
$retryCount++
}
}
}
Some tips:
Try to avoid Write-Host as it kills puppies and the pipeline (Don Jones). Better would be, if it's meant for viewing the script's progress, to use Write-Verbose.
Try to be consistent in spacing. The longer and more complex your scripts become, the more difficult it will be to read and understand them. Especially when others need to help you. For this reason, proper spacing helps all of us.
Try to use Tab completion in the PowerShell ISE. When you type start and press the TAB-key, it will automatically propose the options available. When you select what you want with the arrow down/up and press enter, it will nicely format the CmdLet to Start-Sleep.
The most important tip of all: keep exploring! The more you try and play with PowerShell, the better you'll get at it.
As pointed out in comments, your problem is that you're comparing a boolean value with the string "False":
$exists -eq "False"
In PowerShell, comparison operators evaluate arguments from left-to-right, and the type of the left-hand argument determines the type of comparison being made.
Since the left-hand argument ($exists) has the type [bool] (a boolean value, it can be $true or $false), PowerShell tries to convert the right-hand argument to a [bool] as well.
PowerShell interprets any non-empty string as $true, so the statement:
$exists -eq "False"
is equivalent to
$exists -eq $true
Which is probably not what you intended.
Very new to coding in general, so I fear I am missing something completely obvious. I want my program to check for a file. If it is there, just continue the code. If it has not arrived, continue cheking for a given amount of time, or untill the file shows up. My loop works on its own, so when i only select the do-part in Powershell ISE, it works. But when i try running it inside the if statement, nothing happens. The loops doesnt begin.
$exists= Test-Path $resultFile
$a = 1
if ($exists -eq "False")
{
do
{
$a++
log "Now `$a is $a "
start-sleep -s ($a)
$exists= Test-Path $resultFile
write-host "exists = $exists"
}
while (($a -le 5) -and ($exists -ne "True"))
}
Another way of doing this is using a while loop:
$VerbosePreference = 'Continue'
$file = 'S:\myFile.txt'
$maxRetries = 5; $retryCount = 0; $completed = $false
while (-not $completed) {
if (Test-Path -LiteralPath $file) {
Write-Verbose "File '$file' found"
$completed = $true
# Do actions with your file here
}
else {
if ($retryCount -ge $maxRetries) {
throw "Failed finding the file within '$maxRetries' retries"
} else {
Write-Verbose "File not found, retrying in 5 seconds."
Start-Sleep '5'
$retryCount++
}
}
}
Some tips:
Try to avoid Write-Host as it kills puppies and the pipeline (Don Jones). Better would be, if it's meant for viewing the script's progress, to use Write-Verbose.
Try to be consistent in spacing. The longer and more complex your scripts become, the more difficult it will be to read and understand them. Especially when others need to help you. For this reason, proper spacing helps all of us.
Try to use Tab completion in the PowerShell ISE. When you type start and press the TAB-key, it will automatically propose the options available. When you select what you want with the arrow down/up and press enter, it will nicely format the CmdLet to Start-Sleep.
The most important tip of all: keep exploring! The more you try and play with PowerShell, the better you'll get at it.
As pointed out in comments, your problem is that you're comparing a boolean value with the string "False":
$exists -eq "False"
In PowerShell, comparison operators evaluate arguments from left-to-right, and the type of the left-hand argument determines the type of comparison being made.
Since the left-hand argument ($exists) has the type [bool] (a boolean value, it can be $true or $false), PowerShell tries to convert the right-hand argument to a [bool] as well.
PowerShell interprets any non-empty string as $true, so the statement:
$exists -eq "False"
is equivalent to
$exists -eq $true
Which is probably not what you intended.