ForEach-Object's syntax in powershell

Question

I have a working Powershell statement like below,

$Uptime = $Uptime |  ForEach-Object {
    if($_ -eq "N/A"){return $_}else{'{0}:{1}:{2:D2}:{3:D2}' -f ($_.Duration()).Days,($_.Duration()).Hours,($_.Duration()).Minutes,($_.Duration()).Seconds}
}

Where $Uptime is an array of DateTime objects.

I like the one liner for my else statement, but I'd like to create a variable which contain $_.Duration() in my else statement instead of repeating it.

I tried,

$Uptime = $Uptime |  ForEach-Object {
    if($_ -eq "N/A"){return $_}else{ $d = $_.Duration() return '{0}:{1}:{2:D2}:{3:D2}' -f ($d).Days,($d).Hours,($d).Minutes,($d).Seconds}
}

Which obviously is not valid syntax (unexpected token 'return' in expression or statement).

Obviously my goal is to have the same behavior as above and return the formatted string '{0}:{1}:{2:D2}:{3:D2}', but I can't find the right syntax.

Maximilian Burszley · Accepted Answer · 2018-07-12 16:40:46Z

3

You can use a semi-colon to enter multiple commands on the same line:

$d = $_.Duration(); return (<expression>) }

You don't need return because anything returned by the expressions will be sent to the output stream, which is being assigned to your variable $Uptime.

$Uptime = $Uptime |
    ForEach-Object {
        if ($_ -eq "N/A") {
            $_
        } else {
            $d = $_.Duration()
            '{0}:{1}:{2:D2}:{3:D2}' -f $d.Days,$d.Hours,$d.Minutes,$d.Seconds
        }
    }

This is equivalent to what you wrote.

You can further shorten your formatting string (assuming $d is a DateTime object):

'{0:dd}:{0:HH}:{0:mm}:{0:ss}' -f $d

or even

$_.Duration() | Get-Date -UFormat %d:%H:%M:%S

edited Jul 12, 2018 at 16:40

answered Jul 12, 2018 at 16:04

Maximilian Burszley

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