Outputting arrays with PSObject; Limitted to 4 columns - powershell

Question

A snippet of my code:
$ipaddress = '127.0.0.1'
$port = 135,137,138,139,443,445
for($i=0; $i -lt $port.length; $i++)
{
$out = new-object psobject
$out | add-member noteproperty Host $ipaddress
$out | add-member noteproperty Port $port[$i]
$out | add-member noteproperty Isopen $isopen[$i]
$out | add-member noteproperty Desc "Desc"
$out | add-member noteproperty Notes $Notes[$i]
$out | add-member noteproperty Issue $issue[$i]
Write-Output $out
}
What I'm trying to do is print out the results of my port scanner into a nice table.
This works fine when there's 4 or less columns:
But Whenever I add more columns, even though there's space on the screen, it converts it into a list:
When I try to append "Format-Table" to it, it writes out the headers each time:
Write-Output $out | Format-Table
If I copy the line "Write-Output $out" outside the loop, it only prints out the last member. Any ideas on how to tackle this?
Thanks

Answer 1

As you've found, PowerShell formats your output in a table by default, but opts for list view when the objects being formatted have more than 4 visible members.
You can override this by explicitly invoking your preferred Format-* command. Simply "collect" all the output objects in an variable then explicitly pipe them to Format-Table:
$ipaddress = '127.0.0.1'
$port = 135,137,138,139,443,445
$objects = for($i=0; $i -lt $port.length; $i++)
{
$out = new-object psobject
$out | add-member noteproperty Host $ipaddress
$out | add-member noteproperty Port $port[$i]
$out | add-member noteproperty Isopen $isopen[$i]
$out | add-member noteproperty Desc "Desc"
$out | add-member noteproperty Notes $Notes[$i]
$out | add-member noteproperty Issue $issue[$i]
Write-Output $out
}
$objects |Format-Table
Unless you're running your code on PowerShell 2.0, I'd suggest using the 3.0 [pscustomobject] syntax for creating your object (and perhaps turn the whole thing into a function):
function Get-PortStatus
{
param(
[string]$IPAddress = '127.0.0.1',
[intp[]]$Port = 135,137,138,139,443,445
)
# populate $isopen, $notes, $issue etc. here ...
for($i=0; $i -lt $port.length; $i++)
{
# Write-Output is implied when the new object isn't assigned to anything
[pscustomobject]#{
Host = $ipaddress
Port = $port[$i]
IsOpen = $isopen[$i]
Desc = "Desc"
Notes = $Notes[$i]
Issue = $issue[$i]
}
}
}
Now you can do:
PS C:\Users\Gabrielius> Get-PortStatus -IPAddress '10.0.0.10' -Port 80,443 |Format-Table

Answer 2

You could make your own type and table view in a .format.ps1xml file, if it's worth it to you. Here's a simple example. The format is documented at About Format.ps1xml There's actually format files for all the custom objects in powershell. This is rather boilerplate. I wish there were a $numPropsToTable preference variable.
myobject.format.ps1xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Configuration>
<ViewDefinitions>
<View>
<Name>myobject</Name>
<ViewSelectedBy>
<TypeName>myobject</TypeName>
</ViewSelectedBy>
<TableControl>
<TableHeaders>
<TableColumnHeader>
<Width>16</Width>
</TableColumnHeader>
<TableColumnHeader>
<Width>16</Width>
</TableColumnHeader>
<TableColumnHeader>
<Width>16</Width>
</TableColumnHeader>
<TableColumnHeader>
<Width>16</Width>
</TableColumnHeader>
<TableColumnHeader>
<Width>16</Width>
</TableColumnHeader>
</TableHeaders>
<TableRowEntries>
<TableRowEntry>
<TableColumnItems>
<TableColumnItem>
<PropertyName>Name</PropertyName>
</TableColumnItem>
<TableColumnItem>
<PropertyName>Address</PropertyName>
</TableColumnItem>
<TableColumnItem>
<PropertyName>City</PropertyName>
</TableColumnItem>
<TableColumnItem>
<PropertyName>State</PropertyName>
</TableColumnItem>
<TableColumnItem>
<PropertyName>Zip</PropertyName>
</TableColumnItem>
</TableColumnItems>
</TableRowEntry>
</TableRowEntries>
</TableControl>
</View>
</ViewDefinitions>
</Configuration>
update-formatdata myobject.format.ps1xml
[pscustomobject]#{name='me';address='here';city='la';state='ca';zip=11111
PSTypeName = 'MyObject'}
Name Address City State Zip
---- ------- ---- ----- ---
me here la ca 11111