Windows PowerShell Cookbook, 3rd Edition

Chapter 22. Comparing Data

Introduction

When you’re working in PowerShell, it is common to work with collections of objects. Most PowerShell commands generate objects, as do many of the methods that you work with in the .NET Framework. To help you work with these object collections, PowerShell introduces the Compare-Object cmdlet. The Compare-Object cmdlet provides functionality similar to the well-known diff commands, but with an object-oriented flavor.

Compare the Output of Two Commands

Problem

You want to compare the output of two commands.

Solution

To compare the output of two commands, store the output of each command in variables, and then use the Compare-Object cmdlet to compare those variables:

PS > notepad
PS > $processes = Get-Process
PS > Stop-Process -ProcessName Notepad
PS > $newProcesses = Get-Process
PS > Compare-Object $processes $newProcesses

InputObject                           SideIndicator
-----------                           -------------
System.Diagnostics.Process (notepad)  <=

Discussion

The Solution shows how to determine which processes have exited between the two calls to Get-Process. The SideIndicator of <= tells us that the process was present in the left collection ($processes) but not in the right ($newProcesses). To work with the actual object that was different, access the InputObject property:

PS > $diff = @(Compare-Object $processes $newProcesses)[0]
PS > $process = $diff.InputObject
PS > $process.Handles
55

By default, the Compare-Object cmdlet uses the comparison functionality built into most .NET objects. ...