How do I create an anonymous object in PowerShell? - powershell

Question

I want to create an object of arbitrary values, sort of like how I can do this in C#
var anon = new { Name = "Ted", Age = 10 };

Answer 1

You can do any of the following, in order of easiest usage:
Use Vanilla Hashtable with PowerShell 5+
In PS5, a vanilla hash table will work for most use cases
$o = #{ Name = "Ted"; Age = 10 }
Convert Hashtable to PSCustomObject
If you don't have a strong preference, just use this where vanilla hash tables won't work:
$o = [pscustomobject]#{
Name = "Ted";
Age = 10
}
Using Select-Object cmdlet
$o = Select-Object #{n='Name';e={'Ted'}},
#{n='Age';e={10}} `
-InputObject ''
Using New-Object and Add-Member
$o = New-Object -TypeName psobject
$o | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name Name -Value 'Ted'
$o | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name Age -Value 10
Using New-Object and hashtables
$properties = #{
Name = "Ted";
Age = 10
}
$o = New-Object psobject -Property $properties;
Note: Objects vs. HashTables
Hashtables are just dictionaries containing keys and values, meaning you might not get the expected results from other PS functions that look for objects and properties:
$o = #{ Name="Ted"; Age= 10; }
$o | Select -Property *
Further Reading
4 Ways to Create PowerShell Objects
Everything you wanted to know about hashtables
Everything you wanted to know about PSCustomObject

Answer 2

Try this:
PS Z:\> $o = #{}
PS Z:\> $o.Name = "Ted"
PS Z:\> $o.Age = 10
Note: You can also include this object as the -Body of an Invoke-RestMethod and it'll serialize it with no extra work.
Update
Note the comments below. This creates a hashtable.

Answer 3

With PowerShell 5+
Just declare as:
$anon = #{ Name="Ted"; Age= 10; }