PowerShell Cookbook, 4th Edition

Chapter 8. Utility Tasks

8.0 Introduction

When you’re scripting or just using the interactive shell, a handful of needs arise that are simple but useful: measuring commands, getting random numbers, and more.

8.1 Get the System Date and Time

Problem

You want to get the system date.

Solution

To get the system date, run the command Get-Date.

Discussion

The Get-Date command generates rich object-based output, so you can use its result for many date-related tasks. For example, to determine the current day of the week:

PS > $date = Get-Date
PS > $date.DayOfWeek
Sunday

If you want to format the date for output (for example, as a logfile stamp), see Recipe 5.13.

For more information about the Get-Date cmdlet, type Get-Help Get-Date.

For more information about working with classes from the .NET Framework, see Recipe 3.8.

See Also

Recipe 3.8, “Work with .NET Objects”

Recipe 5.13, “Format a Date for Output”

8.2 Measure the Duration of a Command

Problem

You want to know how long a command takes to execute.

Solution

To measure the duration of a command, use the Measure-Command cmdlet:

PS > Measure-Command { Start-Sleep -Milliseconds 337 }

Days              : 0
Hours             : 0
Minutes           : 0
Seconds           : 0
Milliseconds      : 339
Ticks             : 3392297
TotalDays         : 3.92626967592593E-06
TotalHours        : 9.42304722222222E-05
TotalMinutes      : 0.00565382833333333
TotalSeconds      : 0.3392297
TotalMilliseconds : 339.2297

Discussion

In interactive use, it’s common to want to measure the duration of a command. An example ...