How can I retrieve the name of the function that is currently running in powershell? Here is an example of what I want:
Function write-FunctionName
{
write-host "The name of this function is: *SomethingGoesHereButWhat?*"
}
Then when I execute it, it will display this:
>write-FunctionName
The name of this function is: write-FunctioName
>
Can this be done? If so how?
The $MyInvocation variable contains information about whatever is currently executing:
Function write-FunctionName
{
write-host ("The name of this function is: {0} " -f $MyInvocation.MyCommand)
}
For more information, see get-help about_automatic_variables, or the technet site here.
Related
Why does the simplified function below return more than the fruit name in the returned string?
For example, the write host INSIDE the function shows a fruit name.
However the write host at the bottom (outside the function) shows fruit name (as expected) plus the database connection info (which is NOT desired/expected)
#inside the function, write-host shows a fruit name as expected
#outside the function (bottom line below) write-host shows extra things such as the connection string (for example: "server=myserver;database=mydb;userid=myuser....thefruitname")
function Get_A_SINGLE_FRUIT_NAME{
$queryString = "SELECT top 1 fruitname from FROM fruits";
$dbConnectionString = "a-real-conn-string-was-here"
$dbConnectionString
Invoke-Sqlcmd -ConnectionString $edwConnectionString -Query $queryString -MaxCharLength 50000 -OutVariable sqlReturn |Out-Null
foreach($queryResultRow in $sqlReturn){
try{
[String]$returnString = $queryResultRow.fruitname
write-host("fruitname found:"+$returnString);
}Catch{
$_.Exception.Message
$returnString="No fruitname found"
}
Break
}
return $returnString
}
$qryOut = Get_A_SINGLE_FRUIT_NAME
write-host("qry out:"+$qryOut);
I found the issue. When a PowerShell function returns a value, it also returns any other values output to the pipeline which may have occurred inside the function before the return statement.
See also: Function return value in PowerShell
So I removed the extraneous line which contained ONLY $dbConnectionString, and now the function returns ONLY the expected value.
I am trying to get a value from an input box from a Powershell script back to a UI Path Sequence. I have created a simple sequence as an example. Yes, I know I could do this all in UI Path, I am just using an easy example as a way to try and test this for future use cases. Here is my sequence:
My text file from "Read text file" is:
$test = "Desktop/PassingArgs2of2.ps1 -Message foo"
Invoke-Expression -Command $test
The activity in UiPath looks like so:
The psCmd that I am running in the Invoke power shell activity looks like this:
Param(
[parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
[string]
$Message)
try{
$Global:fooVar = $null
function Test-InputBox(){
[void][Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName('Microsoft.VisualBasic')
$msg = "fooMsg"
$title = "fooTitle"
$localtest = [Microsoft.VisualBasic.Interaction]::InputBox($msg, $title)
$Global:fooVar = $localtest.ToString()
}
Test-InputBox
}
catch{}
I tried setting fooVar equal to testLocal in the PowerShellVariables within Invoke power shell and then writing it, but that did not work.
Basically I want to get fooVar back into UI Path. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
You're almost there. First, your Powershell script has to return a value. Take this for example:
[void][Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName('Microsoft.VisualBasic')
$title = 'Your title goes here'
$msg = 'Your favorite color:'
$text = [Microsoft.VisualBasic.Interaction]::InputBox($msg, $title)
return $text
Here's the script in action (note that I called it twice and provided "red" the first time:
Then, just use this script directly in the Invoke Powershell activity. Note that the most important part here is the Output property - here, I decided to go for an array of strings. Naturally, as we only return a single value, you can just access the text provided by the user by accessing output(0).ToString().
I'm trying to import an xml file and store as a variable for the remainder of a powershell session. The import is obviously successful but the variable content does not persist outside of the function.
Function auth
{
$cred = import-clixml -Path c:\temp\cred.xml
}
try this:
Function auth
{
$global:cred = "test"
}
auth
$global:cred
You can use globals as Esperento57 suggests or you can do this
function auth
{
return 'test'
}
$cred = auth
More succinct:
function auth
{
'test'
}
$cred = auth
You need to declare the variable outside the scope of the function first and then inside the function explicitly tell the variable to update using the script:var method.
Here's the example is taken from https://www.kongsli.net/2013/04/25/powershell-gotchas-refer-to-variables-outside-a-function/ to which credit is given.
The thing is that we have to explicitly tell Powershell to update the variable in the parent scope instead of creating a new variable in the current scope.
$x = 1
function changeit {
"Changing `$x. Was: $x"
$script:x = 2
"New value: $x"
}
"`$x has value $x"
changeit
"`$x has value $x"
If you need to do this but with a number of functions and variables, you can place them all into a script and then dotsource the script.
Imagine a script like this:
#MyDevFunctions.ps1
$myImportantVar = "somevar"
$myOtherVar = "ABC123"
Function Get-MyCoolValue(){$myImportantVar}
Write-Host "Finished Loading MyDevFunctions"
If you wanted to run this, and then also persist the values of the variables and also the functions themselves, from your parent script you simply invoke it like so:
PS > . .\MyDevFunctions.ps1
"Finished Loading MyDevFunctions"
PS > $myOtherVar
ABC123
PS> Get-MyCoolValue
someVar
I'm currently learning PowerShell and I can't work out how to combine a string and a variable to pull information from an existing variable.
The user input will just be a number, so 1,2,3 etc. which I need to append to the end of $option which will pull the title information from the variable $optionX.
So far everything I've tried just interprets it as a string and print $OptionX into the console, as opposed to the value held by $OptionX.
So for example:
function Title{
Write-host "$OptionName for:"$computerSystem.Name -BackgroundColor DarkCyan
}
function GetMenu {
# Set the menu options
$Option1 = "1) System Information"
# Get menu selection
$Navigation = Read-Host "Enter Selection"
ToolBox
}
function ToolBox{
Clear-Host
switch ($Navigation){
1 { #Script 1
Title
}
You can do what you do in the self-answer. I would suggest using a hash-map for it though - seems cleaner to me. (I have no idea what the $computersystem.Name-part is, so I just left it in):
function Title{
Write-host "$($Options[$Navigation]) for:"$computerSystem.Name -BackgroundColor DarkCyan
}
function GetMenu {
# Set the menu options
$Options = #{
"1" = "1) System Information"
"2" = "2) Something else"
}
# Get menu selection
$Navigation = Read-Host "Enter Selection"
ToolBox
}
function ToolBox{
Clear-Host
switch ($Navigation){
1 { #Script 1
Title
}
}
}
For the rest of your script I can see that you are using Global Variables extensively, which I would avoid (it will confuse you, makes it harder to understand what is going on, and many other reasons not to use them). Look into using parameters for your functions, using the snippet menu (CTRL+J) in Powershell ISE will make a quick function skeleton for you. When you want to develop further in Powershell functions look into the Cmdlet (advanced function) template in the same menu.
I figured out how to do it, I'm not sure if it's the best method but it does what I need it to do.
function Title{
$OptionCombine = "Option"+$Navigation
$OptionName = Get-variable $OptionCombine -ValueOnly
Write-host "$OptionName for:"$computerSystem.Name -BackgroundColor DarkCyan
}
I want to write a powershell ps1 script, which needs 2 argument sets,(-a -d) and each can have upto n attributes. How to implement that?
example : DoTheTask -a <task name 1> <task name 2> ... -d <machine name 1> <machine name 2>...
You can do this:
param(
[string[]]$a,
[string[]]$d
)
write-host $a
write-host ----
write-host $d
Then you can call DoTheTask -a task1,task2 -d machine1,machine2
Can you organize your task names and machines names in such a way that they can be put in to a single string with delimiters.
In other words, could your -a argument be a string a comma-separated task names and your -d argument be a string of comma-separated machine names? If so, then all you need to do is parse the string into its components at the start of your script.
If you are passing these arguments to the script itself, you could leverage the $args internal variable, though key/value mapping will be a little trickier since PowerShell will interpret each statement as an argument. I suggest (like others) that you use another separator so that you can do the mappings easier.
Nonetheless, if you want to continue doing it this way, you can use a function like the below:
Function Parse-Arguments {
$_args = $script:args # set this to something other than $script:args if you want to use this inside of the script.
$_ret = #{}
foreach ($_arg in $_args) {
if ($_arg.substring(0,1) -eq '-') {
$_key = $_arg; [void]$foreach.moveNext() # set the key (i.e. -a, -b) and moves to the next element in $args, or the tasks to do for that switch
while ($_arg.substring(0,1) -ne '-') { # goes through each task until it hits another switch
$_val = $_arg
switch($_key) {
'-a' {
write-host "doing stuff for $_key"
$ret.add($_key,$_val) # puts the arg entered and tasks to do for that arg.
}
# put more conditionals here
}
}
}
}
}