This is from a NG post discussing the -f Operator… I thought it was a pretty good description. Compliments to Kiron.
Q: What is the -f operator
A: PowerShell’s Format Operator ‘-f’ is equivalent to .Net’s Composite
Formatting. The syntax is:
{index[,alignment][:formatString]} -f listOfValues
Composite Formatting
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/txafckwd(vs.71).aspx
Quoting from about_operator:
Format Operator “-f”
The format operator provides support for formatting strings via the .NET
string object format method. On the left hand side of the operator is the
format string and on the right hand of the operator is the collection of
objects to be formatted.
The following example shows some of the capabilities of the format operator.
PS> “{0} {1,-10} {2:N}” -f 1,”hello”,[math]::pi
1 hello 3.14
Some samples:
-
# the ‘|’ is for demonstrating the alignment
-
"{0:(###) ###-####}" -f 2224445555 # phone number
-
"{0:hh:mm:ss tt}" -f (get-date) # time, 12 hour format
-
"{0:HH:mm:ss}" -f (get-date) # time, 24 hour format
-
"{0:p4}" -f (1/3) # percent with four decimal places
-
"{0:c2}" -f (1724.87 * 12) # currency with two decimal places
-
"|{0,22:c2}|" -f (1724.87 * 12) # right aligned currency with two decimal places
-
"|{0,-22:n2}|" -f (13/57) # left aligned number with two decimal places
-
"{0:MM dd yy}" -f (get-date) # date, custom short format
-
"{0:MMMM yyyy}" -f (get-date) # date, ‘month year’ format
-
0..15 | % {"{0:0##}" -f $_} # filled number format
-
0..15 | % {"|{0,33}|" -f "Number $_"} # right aligned string
-
0..15 | % {"|{0,-33}|" -f "Number $_"} # left aligned string
-
0..15 | % {"|{0,33}| |{0,-33}|" -f "Number $_"} # right & left aligned string
Suggested Reading.
Standard Numeric Format Strings
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dwhawy9k.aspx
Custom Numeric Format Strings
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/0c899ak8.aspx
Standard DateTime Format Strings
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/az4se3k1.aspx
Custom DateTime Format Strings
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8kb3ddd4.aspx
Enumeration Format Strings
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/c3s1ez6e.aspx
Check out this blog from the PowerShell Team
http://blogs.msdn.com/powershell/archive/2006/06/16/634575.aspx
tshell :: Aug.27.2007 ::
.NET, Format, Powershell, Scripting ::
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