Where-Object, Select-Object and ForEach-object - Differences and Usage - powershell

Question

Where-Object, Select-Object and ForEach-Object
I am a PowerShell beginner. I don't understand too much. Can someone give examples to illustrate the differences and usage scenarios between them?

Answer 1

If you are at all familiar with either LINQ or SQL then it should be much easier to understand because it uses the same concepts for the same words with a slight tweak.
Where-Object
is used for filtering out objects from the pipeline and is similar to how SQL filters rows. Here, objects are compared against a condition, or optionally a ScriptBlock, to determine whether it should be passed on to the next cmdlet in the pipeline. To demonstrate:
# Approved Verbs
Get-Verb | Measure-Object # count of 98
Get-Verb | Where-Object Verb -Like G* | Measure-Object # 3
# Integers 1 to 100
1..100 | Measure-Object # count of 100
1..100 | Where-Object {$_ -LT 50} | Measure-Object # count of 49
This syntax is usually the most readable when not using a ScriptBlock, but is necessary if you want to refer to the object itself (not a property) or for more complicated boolean results. Note: many resources will recommend (as #Iftimie Tudor mentions) trying to filter sooner (more left) in the pipeline for performance benefits.
Select-Object
is used for filtering properties of an object and is similar to how SQL filters columns. Importantly, it transforms the pipeline object into a new PSCustomObject that only has the requested properties with the object's values copied. To demonstrate:
Get-Process
Get-Process | Select-Object Name,CPU
Note, though, that this is only the standard usage. Explore its parameter sets using Get-Help Select-Object where it has similar row-like filtering capabilities like only getting the first n objects from the pipeline (aka, Get-Process | Select-Object -First 3) that continue onto the next cmdlet.
ForEach-Object
is like your foreach loops in other languages, with its own important flavour. In fact, PowerShell also has a foreach loop of its own! These may be easily confused but are operationally quite different. The main visual difference is that the foreach loop cannot be used in a pipeline, but ForEach-Object can. The latter, ForEach-Object, is a cmdlet (foreach is not) and can be used for transforming the current pipeline or for running a segment of code against the pipeline. It is really the most flexible cmdlet there is.
The best way to think about it is that it is the body of a loop, where the current element, $_, is coming from the pipeline and any output is passed onto the next cmdlet. To demonstrate:
# Transform
Get-Verb | ForEach-Object {"$($_.Verb) comes from the group $($_.Group)"}
# Retrieve Property
Get-Verb | ForEach-Object Verb
# Call Method
Get-Verb | ForEach-Object GetType
# Run Code
1..100 | ForEach-Object {
$increment = $_ + 1
$multiplied = $increment * 3
Write-Output $multiplied
}
Edit (Feb, 2023): thanks to #IkemKrueger for a missing }.

Answer 2

You have two things in there: filtering and iterating through a collection.
Filtering:
principle: Always use filtering left as much as possible. These two commands do the same thing, but the second one won't transmit a huge chunk of data through the pipe (or network):
Get-Process | where-Object {$_.Name -like 'chrome'} | Export-Csv
'c:\temp\processes.csv'
Get-Process -Name chrome | Export-Csv c:\temp\processes.csv
This is great when working with huge lists of computers or big files.
Many commandlets have their own filtering capabilities. Run get Get-Help get-process -full to see what they offer before piping.
iterating through collections:
Here you have 3 possibilities:
batch cmdlets is commandlet built in capability of passing a collection to another commandlet:
Get-Service -name BITS,Spooler,W32Time | Set-Service -startuptype
Automatic
WMI methods - WMI uses it's own way of doing the first one (different syntax)
gwmi win32_networkadapterconfiguration -filter "description like
'%intel%'" | EnableDHCP()
enumerating objects - iterating through the list:
Get-WmiObject Win32_Service -filter "name = 'BITS'" | ForEach-Object
-process { $_.change($null,$null,$null,$null,$null,$null,$null,"P#ssw0rd") }
Credits:
I found explanations that cleared the mess in my head around all these things in a book called : Learn Powershell in a month of lunches (chapters 9 and 13 in this case)