Measure-Object

Syntax

Measure-Object
       [[-Property] <PSPropertyExpression[]>]
       [-InputObject <PSObject>]
       [-StandardDeviation]
       [-Sum]
       [-AllStats]
       [-Average]
       [-Maximum]
       [-Minimum]
       [<CommonParameters>]

Measure-Object
       [[-Property] <PSPropertyExpression[]>]
       [-InputObject <PSObject>]
       [-Line]
       [-Word]
       [-Character]
       [-IgnoreWhiteSpace]
       [<CommonParameters>]

Description

The Measure-Object cmdlet calculates the property values of certain types of object. Measure-Object performs three types of measurements, depending on the parameters in the command.

The Measure-Object cmdlet performs calculations on the property values of objects. You can use Measure-Object to count objects or count objects with a specified Property. You can also use Measure-Object to calculate the Minimum, Maximum, Sum, StandardDeviation and Average of numeric values. For String objects, you can also use Measure-Object to count the number of lines, words, and characters.

Examples

Example 1: Count the files and folders in a directory

This command counts the files and folders in the current directory.

Get-ChildItem | Measure-Object

Example 2: Measure the files in a directory

This command displays the Minimum, Maximum, and Sum of the sizes of all files in the current directory, and the average size of a file in the directory.

Get-ChildItem | Measure-Object -Property length -Minimum -Maximum -Sum -Average

Example 3: Measure text in a text file

This command displays the number of characters, words, and lines in the Text.txt file. Without the Raw parameter, Get-Content outputs the file as an array of lines.

The first command uses Set-Content to add some default text to a file.

"One", "Two", "Three", "Four" | Set-Content -Path C:\Temp\tmp.txt
Get-Content C:\Temp\tmp.txt | Measure-Object -Character -Line -Word

Lines Words Characters Property
----- ----- ---------- --------
    4     4         15

Example 4: Measure objects containing a specified Property

This example counts the number of objects that have a DisplayName property. The first two commands retrieve all the services and processes on the local machine. The third command counts the combined number of services and processes. The last command combines the two collections and pipes the result to Measure-Object.

The System.Diagnostics.Process object does not have a DisplayName property, and is left out of the final count.

$services = Get-Service
$processes = Get-Process
$services + $processes | Measure-Object
$services + $processes | Measure-Object -Property DisplayName

Count    : 682
Average  :
Sum      :
Maximum  :
Minimum  :
Property :

Count    : 290
Average  :
Sum      :
Maximum  :
Minimum  :
Property : DisplayName

Example 5: Measure the contents of a CSV file

This command calculates the average years of service of the employees of a company.

The ServiceYrs.csv file is a CSV file that contains the employee number and years of service of each employee. The first row in the table is a header row of EmpNo, Years.

When you use Import-Csv to import the file, the result is a PSCustomObject with note properties of EmpNo and Years. You can use Measure-Object to calculate the values of these properties, just like any other property of an object.

Import-Csv d:\test\serviceyrs.csv | Measure-Object -Property years -Minimum -Maximum -Average

Example 6: Measure Boolean values

This example demonstrates how the Measure-Object can measure Boolean values. In this case, it uses the PSIsContainer Boolean property to measure the incidence of folders (vs. files) in the current directory.

Get-ChildItem | Measure-Object -Property psiscontainer -Maximum -Sum -Minimum -Average

Count             : 126
Average           : 0.0634920634920635
Sum               : 8
Maximum           : 1
Minimum           : 0
StandardDeviation :
Property          : PSIsContainer

Example 7: Measure strings

The following example measures the number of lines, first a single string, then across several strings. The newline character `n separates strings into multiple lines.

# The newline character `n separates the string into separate lines, as shown in the output.
"One`nTwo`nThree"
"One`nTwo`nThree" | Measure-Object -Line

One
Two
Three


Lines Words Characters Property
----- ----- ---------- --------
    3

# The first string counts as a single line.
# The second string is separated into two lines by the newline character.
"One", "Two`nThree" | Measure-Object -Line

Lines Words Characters Property
----- ----- ---------- --------
    3

# The Word switch counts the number of words in each InputObject
# Each InputObject is treated as a single line.
"One, Two", "Three", "Four Five" | Measure-Object -Word -Line

Lines Words Characters Property
----- ----- ---------- --------
    3     5

Example 8: Measure all the values

Beginning in PowerShell 6, the AllStats parameter of Measure-Object allows you to measure all the statistics together.

1..5 | Measure-Object -AllStats

Count             : 5
Average           : 3
Sum               : 15
Maximum           : 5
Minimum           : 1
StandardDeviation : 1.58113883008419
Property          :

Example 9: Measure using scriptblock properties

Beginning in PowerShell 6, Measure-Object supports ScriptBlock properties. The following example demonstrates how to use a ScriptBlock property to determine the size, in MegaBytes, of all the files in a directory.

Get-ChildItem | Measure-Object -Sum {$_.Length/1MB}

Example 10: Measure hashtables

Beginning in PowerShell 6, Measure-Object supports measurement of hashtable input. The following example determines the largest value for the num key of 3 hashtable objects.

@{num=3}, @{num=4}, @{num=5} | Measure-Object -Maximum Num

Count             : 3
Average           :
Sum               :
Maximum           : 5
Minimum           :
StandardDeviation :
Property          : num

Example 11: Measure the Standard Deviation

Beginning in PowerShell 6, Measure-Object supports the -StandardDeviation parameter. The following example determines the standard deviation for the CPU used by all processes. A large deviation would indicate a small number of processes consuming the most CPU.

Get-Process | Measure-Object -Average -StandardDeviation CPU

Count             : 303
Average           : 163.032384488449
Sum               :
Maximum           :
Minimum           :
StandardDeviation : 859.444048419069
Property          : CPU

Example 12: Measure using wildcards

Beginning in PowerShell 6, Measure-Object supports measurement of objects by using wildcards in property names. The following example determines the maximum of any type of paged memory usage among a set of processes.

Get-Process | Measure-Object -Maximum *paged*memory*size

Count             : 303
Average           :
Sum               :
Maximum           : 735784
Minimum           :
StandardDeviation :
Property          : NonpagedSystemMemorySize

Count             : 303
Average           :
Sum               :
Maximum           : 352104448
Minimum           :
StandardDeviation :
Property          : PagedMemorySize

Count             : 303
Average           :
Sum               :
Maximum           : 2201968
Minimum           :
StandardDeviation :
Property          : PagedSystemMemorySize

Count             : 303
Average           :
Sum               :
Maximum           : 719032320
Minimum           :
StandardDeviation :
Property          : PeakPagedMemorySize

Parameters

-AllStats

-Average

-Character

-IgnoreWhiteSpace

-InputObject

-Line

-Maximum

-Minimum

-Property

-StandardDeviation

-Sum

-Word

Inputs

PSObject

You can pipe objects to this cmdlet.

Outputs

GenericMeasureInfo

By default, this cmdlet returns a GenericMeasureInfo object.

TextMeasureInfo

When you use the Word parameter, this cmdlet returns a TextMeasureInfo object.

Notes

PowerShell includes the following aliases for Measure-Object:

• All platforms:
  • measure

Starting in PowerShell 7.3, Measure-Object no longer returns an error when processing an object that is missing the property being measured unless you are running in StrictMode. In StrictMode, Measure-Object returns a System.Management.Automation.PSArgumentException when processing an object that is missing the specified property.

Related Links

• about_Calculated_Properties
• Compare-Object
• ForEach-Object
• Group-Object
• New-Object
• Select-Object
• Sort-Object
• Tee-Object
• Where-Object