Windows PowerShell Quick Reference

Looping Statements

Looping statements in PowerShell allow you to execute groups of statements multiple times.

for Statement

<: loop_label> for(<initialization>; <condition>; <increment>)
{
  <statement block>}

When PowerShell executes a for statement, it first executes the expression given by <initialization>—for example, $myCounter = 0. It next evaluates <condition>—for example, $myCounter –lt 10. If <condition> evaluates to $true, PowerShell executes the given statement block. It then executes the expression given by <increment>—for example, $myCounter++. PowerShell continues to execute the statement block and <increment> statement as long as <condition> evaluates to $true.

The break and continue statements (discussed below) may specify the loop_label of any enclosing looping statement as their target.

foreach Statement

<: loop_label> foreach(<variable> in <expression>)
{
  <statement block>
}

When PowerShell executes a foreach statement, it executes the pipeline given by <expression>—for example, Get-Process | Sort Handles or 1..10. For each item produced by the expression, it assigns that item to the variable specified by <variable> and then executes the given statement block. For example:

$handleSum = 0;
foreach($process in Get-Process | sort Handles)
{
   $SCRIPT:handleSum += $process.Handles
}
$handleSum

The break and continue statements (discussed below) may specify the loop_label of any enclosing looping statement as their target.

while Statement

<: loop_label> while(<condition>) { < ...