powershell invoke-command to variable and write out as a table

Question

I have the following code, from what I would like to get the output to

$output

and write-host at the end:

$outputs = @()
foreach ($comp in $maschines.name) { 
    $output = New-Object PSObject -Property @{
            invoke-command -computer comp3 -ScriptBlock { get-vm –VMName $using:comp | Select-Object VMId | Get-VHD | ft @{
            label="vm"; expression={$using:comp}}, 
            path,
            VhdType, 
            VhdFormat, 
            @{label="file(gb)"; expression={($_.FileSize / 1GB) -as [int]}}, 
            @{label="size(gb)"; expression={($_.Size / 1GB) -as [int]}} -AutoSize 
        }
    }
    $outputs += $output
}

$outputs

I get the error

Missing '=' operator after key in hash literal

Mark Wragg · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-15 14:19:34Z

4

The issue is coming from the New-Object cmdlet which is expecting a hash table be provided to the -Property parameter.

I don't think you need New-Object at all to get what I think you're after.

You might also want to consider using Select-Object instead of Format-Table and then using Format-Table at the end to give you more flexibility over how you can further manipulate the results if needed.

You also can return the result of the ForEach directly rather than adding to an array, which is less efficient as the array is recreated each time:

$output = foreach ($comp in $maschines.name) { 
    invoke-command -computer comp3 -ScriptBlock {
        get-vm –VMName $using:comp | Select-Object VMId | Get-VHD | Select-Object @{ label = "vm"; expression = {$using:comp} }, 
        path,
        VhdType, 
        VhdFormat, 
        @{label = "file(gb)"; expression = {($_.FileSize / 1GB) -as [int]} }, 
        @{label = "size(gb)"; expression = {($_.Size / 1GB) -as [int]} }
    }
}

$output | Format-Table -AutoSize

edited Mar 15, 2019 at 14:19

answered Mar 15, 2019 at 14:14

Mark Wragg

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2 Comments

Maximilian Burszley Over a year ago

I'd like to point out using New-Object PSObject, [pscustomobject]@{} and calculated properties with Select-Object all result in the same thing. The choice of one over another is a style choice (although you take a performance hit by using New-Object).

Mark Wragg Over a year ago

Agreed but format-object was definitely the wrong choice.

m0lochwalker · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-15 14:22:09Z

0

I cannot speak to your hashes, but the construct of the custom object looks pretty shaky. I would start with properly formatting the custom object with a Name/Value pair for each item you want in $outputs, and append $outputs directly with each iteration...

$outputs = @()

foreach ($comp in $maschines.name) { 

    $outputs += [pscustomobject]@{

        Prop1 = Get-VM -Name $comp | Select -ExpandProperty Value1
        Prop2 = Get-VM -Name $comp | Select -ExpandProperty Value2
        Prop3 = Invoke-Commmand -ComputerName $comp -Scriptblock {Get-Something | Select Something}

    } 

}

answered Mar 15, 2019 at 14:22

m0lochwalker

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1 Comment

Maximilian Burszley Over a year ago

You don't need to append a new object every iteration: just assign the output of the loop to a variable. $myvar = foreach (... It is significantly faster.

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