[powershell] How to get an object's property's value by property name?

In PowerShell, how do you get an object's property value by specifying its name (a string)? I want something like the following:

$obj = get-something

# View the object's members:
$obj | gm

# I could retrieve a property by doing so:
write-host $obj.SomeProp

# But for many purposes, I would really want to:
write-host $obj | Get-PropertyByName "SomeProp"

Is there something similar to "Get-PropertyByName" in PowerShell?

This question is related to powershell

The answer is


Try this :

$obj = @{
    SomeProp = "Hello"
}

Write-Host "Property Value is $($obj."SomeProp")"

$com1 = new-object PSobject                                                         #Task1
$com2 = new-object PSobject                                                         #Task1
$com3 = new-object PSobject                                                         #Task1



$com1 | add-member noteproperty -name user -value jindpal                           #Task2
$com1 | add-member noteproperty -name code -value IT01                              #Task2
$com1 | add-member scriptmethod ver {[system.Environment]::oSVersion.Version}       #Task3


$com2 | add-member noteproperty -name user -value singh                             #Task2
$com2 | add-member noteproperty -name code -value IT02                              #Task2
$com2 | add-member scriptmethod ver {[system.Environment]::oSVersion.Version}       #Task3


$com3 | add-member noteproperty -name user -value dhanoa                             #Task2
$com3 | add-member noteproperty -name code -value IT03                               #Task2
$com3 | add-member scriptmethod ver {[system.Environment]::oSVersion.Version}        #Task3


$arr += $com1, $com2, $com3                                                          #Task4


write-host "windows version of computer1 is: "$com1.ver()                            #Task3
write-host "user name of computer1 is: "$com1.user                                   #Task6
write-host "code of computer1 is: "$com1,code                                        #Task5
write-host "windows version of computer2 is: "$com2.ver()                            #Task3
write-host "user name of computer2 is: "$com2.user                                   #Task6
write-host "windows version of computer3 is: "$com3.ver()                            #Task3
write-host "user name of computer3 is: "$com1.user                                   #Task6
write-host "code of computer3 is: "$com3,code                                        #Task5

read-host

Here is an alternative way to get an object's property value:

write-host $(get-something).SomeProp

You can get a property by name using the Select-Object cmdlet and specifying the property name(s) that you're interested in. Note that this doesn't simply return the raw value for that property; instead you get something that still behaves like an object.

[PS]> $property = (Get-Process)[0] | Select-Object -Property Name

[PS]> $property

Name
----
armsvc

[PS]> $property.GetType().FullName
System.Management.Automation.PSCustomObject

In order to use the value for that property, you will still need to identify which property you are after, even if there is only one property:

[PS]> $property.Name
armsvc

[PS]> $property -eq "armsvc"
False

[PS]> $property.Name -eq "armsvc"
True

[PS]> $property.Name.GetType().FullName
System.String

As per other answers here, if you want to use a single property within a string, you need to evaluate the expression (put brackets around it) and prefix with a dollar sign ($) to declare the expression dynamically as a variable to be inserted into the string:

[PS]> "The first process in the list is: $($property.Name)"
The first process in the list is: armsvc

Quite correctly, others have answered this question by recommending the -ExpandProperty parameter for the Select-Object cmdlet. This bypasses some of the headache by returning the value of the property specified, but you will want to use different approaches in different scenarios.

-ExpandProperty <String>

Specifies a property to select, and indicates that an attempt should be made to expand that property

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh849895.aspx

[PS]> (Get-Process)[0] | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Name
armsvc


Expanding upon @aquinas:

Get-something | select -ExpandProperty PropertyName

or

Get-something | select -expand PropertyName

or

Get-something | select -exp PropertyName

I made these suggestions for those that might just be looking for a single-line command to obtain some piece of information and wanted to include a real-world example.

In managing Office 365 via PowerShell, here was an example I used to obtain all of the users/groups that had been added to the "BookInPolicy" list:

Get-CalendarProcessing [email protected] | Select -expand BookInPolicy

Just using "Select BookInPolicy" was cutting off several members, so thank you for this information!