First Commands and the Pipeline

Simple Cmdlets

Get-Date          # current date and time
Get-ChildItem     # list files (ls)
Get-Process       # running processes
Get-Service       # Windows services

The Pipeline

The pipe sends the object output of one command into the next. Objects, not strings, flow through:

Get-Process | Where-Object { $_.CPU -gt 10 } | Sort-Object CPU -Descending | Select-Object -First 5 Name, CPU

Formatting Output

Get-Process | Format-Table Name, Id, CPU
Get-Service | Format-List *
Get-Process | Export-Csv processes.csv

Variables Start with $

$processes = Get-Process
$processes.Count
$processes | Where-Object Name -eq 'notepad'

Common Gotchas

• $_ is the pipeline "current object".
• Commands are case-insensitive.
• Use -eq for comparison, = is assignment.

Key Points

• Pipeline passes objects between cmdlets.
• Format-Table/Format-List shape the display.
• $_ refers to each item in the pipeline.
• Export-Csv turns results into data.