Get-Member

Syntax

Get-Member
   [-InputObject <PSObject>]
   [[-Name] <String[]>]
   [-MemberType <PSMemberTypes>]
   [-View <PSMemberViewTypes>]
   [-Static]
   [-Force]
   [<CommonParameters>]

Description

The Get-Member cmdlet gets the members, the properties and methods, of objects.

To specify the object, use the InputObject parameter or pipe an object to Get-Member . To get information about static members, the members of the class, not of the instance, use the Static parameter. To get only certain types of members, such as NoteProperties , use the MemberType parameter.

Get-Member returns a list of members that's sorted alphabetically. Methods are listed first, followed by the properties.

Examples

Example 1: Get the members of process objects

This command displays the properties and methods of the service objects generated by the Get-Service cmdlet.

Because the Get-Member part of the command doesn't have any parameters, it uses default values for the parameters. By default, Get-Member doesn't get static or intrinsic members.

Get-Service | Get-Member

TypeName: System.Service.ServiceController#StartupType

Name                      MemberType    Definition
----                      ----------    ----------
Name                      AliasProperty Name = ServiceName
RequiredServices          AliasProperty RequiredServices = ServicesDependedOn
Disposed                  Event         System.EventHandler Disposed(System.Object, System.EventArgs)
Close                     Method        void Close()
Continue                  Method        void Continue()
Dispose                   Method        void Dispose(), void IDisposable.Dispose()
Equals                    Method        bool Equals(System.Object obj)
ExecuteCommand            Method        void ExecuteCommand(int command)
GetHashCode               Method        int GetHashCode()
GetLifetimeService        Method        System.Object GetLifetimeService()
GetType                   Method        type GetType()
InitializeLifetimeService Method        System.Object InitializeLifetimeService()
Pause                     Method        void Pause()
Refresh                   Method        void Refresh()
Start                     Method        void Start(), void Start(string[] args)
Stop                      Method        void Stop()
WaitForStatus             Method        void WaitForStatus(System.ServiceProcess.ServiceControllerSt...
BinaryPathName            Property      System.String {get;set;}
CanPauseAndContinue       Property      bool CanPauseAndContinue {get;}
CanShutdown               Property      bool CanShutdown {get;}
CanStop                   Property      bool CanStop {get;}
Container                 Property      System.ComponentModel.IContainer Container {get;}
DelayedAutoStart          Property      System.Boolean {get;set;}
DependentServices         Property      System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController[] DependentServices {get;}
Description               Property      System.String {get;set;}
DisplayName               Property      string DisplayName {get;set;}
MachineName               Property      string MachineName {get;set;}
ServiceHandle             Property      System.Runtime.InteropServices.SafeHandle ServiceHandle {get;}
ServiceName               Property      string ServiceName {get;set;}
ServicesDependedOn        Property      System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController[] ServicesDependedOn {get;}
ServiceType               Property      System.ServiceProcess.ServiceType ServiceType {get;}
Site                      Property      System.ComponentModel.ISite Site {get;set;}
StartType                 Property      System.ServiceProcess.ServiceStartMode StartType {get;}
StartupType               Property      Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.ServiceStartupType {get;set;}
Status                    Property      System.ServiceProcess.ServiceControllerStatus Status {get;}
UserName                  Property      System.String {get;set;}
ToString                  ScriptMethod  System.Object ToString();

Example 2: Get members of service objects

This example gets all the members (properties and methods) of service objects retrieved by the Get-Service cmdlet, including the intrinsic members, such as PSBase , PSObject , and the get_ and set_ methods.

Get-Service | Get-Member -Force
(Get-Service Schedule).PSBase

The Get-Member command uses the Force parameter to add the intrinsic members and compiler-generated members of the objects to the display. You can use these properties and methods in the same way that you would use an adapted method of the object. The second command shows how to display the value of the PSBase property of the Schedule service. For more information on intrinsic members, see about_Intrinsic_Members

Example 3: Get extended members of service objects

This example gets the methods and properties of service objects that were extended using a Types.ps1xml file or the Add-Member cmdlet.

Get-Service | Get-Member -View Extended

TypeName: System.Service.ServiceController#StartupType

Name             MemberType    Definition
----             ----------    ----------
Name             AliasProperty Name = ServiceName
RequiredServices AliasProperty RequiredServices = ServicesDependedOn
ToString         ScriptMethod  System.Object ToString();

The Get-Member command uses the View parameter to get only the extended members of the service objects. In this case, the extended member is the Name property, which is an alias property of the ServiceName property.

Example 4: Get script properties of event log objects

This example gets the script properties of event log objects in the System log in Event Viewer.

Get-WinEvent -LogName System -MaxEvents 1 | Get-Member -MemberType NoteProperty

TypeName: System.Diagnostics.Eventing.Reader.EventLogRecord

Name    MemberType   Definition
----    ----------   ----------
Message NoteProperty string Message=The machine-default permission settings do not grant Local ...

The MemberType parameter gets only objects with a value of NoteProperty for their MemberType property.

The command returns the Message property of the EventLogRecord object.

Example 5: Get objects with a specified property

This example gets objects that have a MachineName property in the output from a list of cmdlets.

The $list variable contains a list of cmdlets to be evaluated. The foreach statement invokes each command and sends the results to Get-Member . The Name parameter limits the results from Get-Member to members that have the name MachineName .

$list = "Get-Process", "Get-Service", "Get-Culture", "Get-PSDrive", "Get-ExecutionPolicy"
foreach ($cmdlet in $list) {& $cmdlet | Get-Member -Name MachineName}

TypeName: System.Diagnostics.Process

Name        MemberType Definition
----        ---------- ----------
MachineName Property   string MachineName {get;}

   TypeName: System.Service.ServiceController#StartupType

Name        MemberType Definition
----        ---------- ----------
MachineName Property   string MachineName {get;set;}

The results show that only process objects and service objects have a MachineName property.

Example 6: Get members for an array

This example demonstrates how to find the members of an array of objects. When you pipe and array of objects to Get-Member , the cmdlet returns a member list for each unique object type in the array. If you pass the array using the InputObject parameter, the array is treated as a single object.

$array = @(1,'hello')
$array | Get-Member

TypeName: System.Int32

Name        MemberType Definition
----        ---------- ----------
CompareTo   Method     int CompareTo(System.Object value), int CompareTo(int value), int ICompar...
Equals      Method     bool Equals(System.Object obj), bool Equals(int obj), bool IEquatable[int...
GetHashCode Method     int GetHashCode()
GetType     Method     type GetType()
GetTypeCode Method     System.TypeCode GetTypeCode(), System.TypeCode IConvertible.GetTypeCode()
ToBoolean   Method     bool IConvertible.ToBoolean(System.IFormatProvider provider)
ToByte      Method     byte IConvertible.ToByte(System.IFormatProvider provider)
...

   TypeName: System.String

Name                 MemberType            Definition
----                 ----------            ----------
Clone                Method                System.Object Clone(), System.Object ICloneable.Clone()
CompareTo            Method                int CompareTo(System.Object value), int CompareTo(str...
Contains             Method                bool Contains(string value), bool Contains(string val...
CopyTo               Method                void CopyTo(int sourceIndex, char[] destination, int ...
EndsWith             Method                bool EndsWith(string value), bool EndsWith(string val...
EnumerateRunes       Method                System.Text.StringRuneEnumerator EnumerateRunes()
Equals               Method                bool Equals(System.Object obj), bool Equals(string va...
GetEnumerator        Method                System.CharEnumerator GetEnumerator(), System.Collect...
GetHashCode          Method                int GetHashCode(), int GetHashCode(System.StringCompa...
...

Get-Member -InputObject $array

TypeName: System.Object[]

Name           MemberType            Definition
----           ----------            ----------
Add            Method                int IList.Add(System.Object value)
Address        Method                System.Object&, System.Private.CoreLib, Version=4.0.0.0, Cu...
Clear          Method                void IList.Clear()
Clone          Method                System.Object Clone(), System.Object ICloneable.Clone()
CompareTo      Method                int IStructuralComparable.CompareTo(System.Object other, Sy...
...

The $array variable contains an Int32 object and a string object, as seen when the array is piped to Get-Member . When $array is passed using the InputObject parameter Get-Member returns the members of the Object[] type.

Example 7: Determine which object properties you can set

This example shows how to determine which properties of an object can be changed.

$File = Get-Item c:\test\textFile.txt
$File.PSObject.Properties | Where-Object isSettable | Select-Object -Property Name

Name
----
PSPath
PSParentPath
PSChildName
PSDrive
PSProvider
PSIsContainer
IsReadOnly
CreationTime
CreationTimeUtc
LastAccessTime
LastAccessTimeUtc
LastWriteTime
LastWriteTimeUtc
Attributes

Example 8: List the properties of an object in the order they were created

This example creates a new PSObject and adds properties to it. Get-Member lists the properties in alphabetic order. To see the properties in the order they were added to the object you must use the PSObject intrinsic member.

$Asset = New-Object -TypeName PSObject
$d = [ordered]@{Name="Server30";System="Server Core";PSVersion="4.0"}
$Asset | Add-Member -NotePropertyMembers $d -TypeName Asset
$Asset.PSObject.Properties | Select-Object Name, Value

Name      Value
----      -----
Name      Server30
System    Server Core
PSVersion 4.0

Parameters

-Force

-InputObject

-MemberType

-Name

-Static

-View

Inputs

PSObject

You can pipe any object to this cmdlet.

Outputs

MemberDefinition

This cmdlet returns a MemberDefinition for each property or method that its gets.

Notes

PowerShell includes the following aliases for Get-Member :

• All platforms:
  • gm

You can get information about a collection object either using the InputObject parameter or by piping the object, preceded by a comma, to Get-Member .

You can use the $This automatic variable in script blocks that define the values of new properties and methods. The $This variable refers to the instance of the object to which the properties and methods are being added. For more information about the $This variable, see about_Automatic_Variables .

If you pass an object representing a type , like a type literal such as [int] , Get-Member return information about the [System.RuntimeType] type. However, when you use the Static parameter, Get-Member returns the static members of the specific type represented by the System.RuntimeType instance.

Related Links

• Add-Member