Exploring Get-Member in PowerShell

Welcome back to Wahmans PowerShell blog! Today, we’re diving into one of the most versatile and insightful cmdlets in the PowerShell universe: Get-Member. According to Microsoft:

Get-Member: Gets the properties and methods of objects.

But what does that actually mean for us PowerShell users? Simply put, Get-Member lets you inspect PowerShell objects so you can understand what data they contain and what operations can be performed on them.

Why Use Get-Member?

PowerShell pipes output between cmdlets as objects—not plain text. To work efficiently with these objects, you need to know their structure. That’s where Get-Member becomes your best friend by revealing the type of object and listing its properties, methods, and more.

Let’s See Get-Member In Action!

Here are four examples showing Get-Member usage, progressing from beginner to more advanced scenarios.

🔰 Example 1: Inspecting a Simple String (Beginner)

$string = "Hello, World!"
$string | Get-Member

This returns the members of a string object, like Length, ToUpper(), and more. Great for understanding even the most basic object types.

🔍 Example 2: Inspect Output of a Cmdlet (Intermediate)

Get-Process | Get-Member

This shows you all the properties (like CPU, Id, ProcessName) and methods associated with process objects. Knowing this helps you extract and manipulate process data effectively.

🛠️ Example 3: Filtering for Properties Only (Advanced)

Get-Service | Get-Member -MemberType Property

Use the -MemberType parameter to filter the output to only show properties. This is useful when you want to selectively extract data, like exporting just property info to a CSV.

🚀 Example 4: Custom Objects and Discoverability (Pro)

$customObject = [PSCustomObject]@{
    Name = "Wahman"
    Skill = "PowerShell"
    Level = 9000
}
$customObject | Get-Member

This is especially helpful when you’re working with or designing your own objects. Get-Member lets you verify the structure and ensure you’re including the right data types and member names.

Conclusion

Get-Member is essential for anyone serious about PowerShell. It transforms your scripting by allowing you to dynamically explore objects, making your code more powerful, flexible, and accurate.

That’s all for today’s exploration of Get-Member. Happy scripting, and I will see you in the next post!