{"id":3261,"date":"2013-07-10T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-10T00:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.technet.microsoft.com\/heyscriptingguy\/2013\/07\/10\/a-powershell-function-to-count-string-length\/"},"modified":"2013-07-10T00:01:00","modified_gmt":"2013-07-10T00:01:00","slug":"a-powershell-function-to-count-string-length","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/a-powershell-function-to-count-string-length\/","title":{"rendered":"A PowerShell Function to Count String Length"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary<\/strong>: Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, talks about creating a Windows PowerShell function that counts a string length and copies it to the clipboard.<\/span><\/p>\n

Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, is here. It is hot and humid outside—89 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) and 75% humidity. That was the great thing about Madrid. Whereas, it was a little hotter (92 degrees Fahrenheit, 33 degrees Celsius), the humidity was less than half the amount we have in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Scripting Wife and I are soaked following a quick trip to the library—and we were not even running. I am sipping a cup of Oolong Green Tea with a bit of cinnamon stick and rose hips. Believe it or not, hot tea on a hot summer day is great. It makes me feel cooler.<\/p>\n

My personal criteria for writing a Windows PowerShell script or a Windows PowerShell function is: when a task becomes annoying to me, I spend the time to create a function or a script. At times, the scenario is not all that bad, but eventually it becomes annoying. Today’s function provides such an example. I need to determine the character length of the title for my Hey, Scripting Guy! Blog. To do this, I have been opening Notepad and using the word count feature there. Then I copy the text to the clipboard, close Notepad, and paste it into Word 2013. So here are the steps involved:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Open Notepad.<\/li>\n
  2. Type the title.<\/li>\n
  3. Note the number of characters.<\/li>\n
  4. Copy the title to the clipboard.<\/li>\n
  5. Select the entire text.<\/span><\/li>\n
  6. Type Ctrl-C.<\/span><\/li>\n
  7. Close Notepad.<\/span><\/li>\n
  8. Paste the title into Word 2013.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    When I list out the number of steps, it seem like a lot of work, but in reality it takes only a minute or two to accomplish. Hmmm…with 730 Hey, Scripting Guy! Blog posts a year, at two minutes each…<\/span><\/p>\n

    That equals 24.5 hours of work!  My new function allows me to accomplish this in less than 15 seconds. Therefore, I save 18.3 hours a year. That is not a bad ROI for a function that took me less than 20 minutes to write.<\/p>\n

    Creating a function to count letters and copy to the clipboard<\/h2>\n

    So I decided to create a function to count the characters in a string. I am going to add the function to my personal profile so it will always be available.<\/p>\n

    Start with a function outline<\/h3>\n

    The first thing I do is begin with a function outline as shown here:<\/p>\n

    Function<\/p>\n

    {<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    }<\/p>\n

    Now I need to decide on the name. I always want to use an approved verb. This is easy, because there is the Get-Verb<\/strong> command. At first, I was thinking Count. <\/em>But when I used the command shown here, there is no Count <\/em>as an approved verb.<\/p>\n

    PS C:\\> get-verb count<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    PS C:\\> <\/p>\n

    So this means I will use the verb <\/span>Get <\/em>and then add something descriptive. I came up with <\/span>Get-LetterCount<\/strong>. My function outline now looks like this:<\/span><\/p>\n

    Function Get-LetterCount<\/p>\n

    {<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    } # End Function Get-LetterCount<\/p>\n

    Add the function parameter<\/h3>\n

    Now I need to add a parameter that I will use for input. I cast the input as a string because that is the way I anticipate using the function. Here is the Param<\/strong> <\/em>statement:<\/p>\n

    Param ([string]$string)<\/p>\n

    The cool thing is that a string automatically has a Length<\/strong> <\/em>property so getting the information will be really easy. I want to display the output to the console. I use the Write-Host<\/strong> cmdlet to do this, as shown in this line of code:<\/p>\n

    Write-Host -ForegroundColor Cyan “string length is” $string.Length<\/p>\n

    Now, I need to copy the string input to the clipboard. To do this, I use the Clip.exe<\/strong> <\/em>command. This is easy. Here is the code:<\/p>\n

    $string | clip.exe<\/p>\n

    The completed function is shown here:<\/p>\n

    Function Get-LetterCount<\/p>\n

    {<\/p>\n

     Param ([string]$string)<\/p>\n

     Write-Host -ForegroundColor Cyan “string length is” $string.Length<\/p>\n

     $string | clip.exe<\/p>\n

    } # End Function Get-LetterCount<\/p>\n

    Clean up and make things more usable<\/h3>\n

    I do not want to have to type Get-LetterCount<\/strong> each time I want to use the function. Therefore, I create a really short alias—I mean really<\/em> short. The letter C. I use Set-Alias<\/strong> instead of New-Alias<\/strong> so that it will overwrite. This is important during testing. It is also something I need to do to ensure that I do not overwrite another alias. Therefore, I use the Get-Alias<\/strong> command first. This is shown here:<\/p>\n

    PS C:\\> Get-Alias c<\/p>\n

    Get-Alias : This command cannot find a matching alias because an alias with the<\/p>\n

    name ‘c’ does not exist.<\/p>\n

    At line:1 char:1<\/p>\n

    + Get-Alias c<\/p>\n

    + ~~~~~~~~~~~<\/p>\n

        + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (c:String) [Get-Alias], ItemNotFoundE<\/p>\n

       xception<\/p>\n

        + FullyQualifiedErrorId : ItemNotFoundException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.G<\/p>\n

       etAliasCommand<\/p>\n

    Cool. Now I can add my new alias as shown here:<\/p>\n

    Set-Alias -Name c -Value Get-LetterCount<\/p>\n

    Now I add comment-based Help to the function. This takes me less than 60 seconds because I use my Add-Help<\/strong> function from my Windows PowerShell profile module.<\/p>\n

    Note<\/strong> For more information about my Windows PowerShell profile module, see Add Power and Functionality to the PowerShell ISE Part 2<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Here is the comment-based Help:<\/p>\n

    <#<\/p>\n

       .Synopsis<\/p>\n

        This counts letters in a string<\/p>\n

       .Description<\/p>\n

        This function counts letters in a string<\/p>\n

       .Example<\/p>\n

        Get-LetterCount “this is a string<\/p>\n

        Returns  string length is 16 and copies text to clipboard<\/p>\n

       .Parameter String<\/p>\n

        The input as a string<\/p>\n

       .Notes<\/p>\n

        NAME:  Get-LetterCount<\/p>\n

        AUTHOR: ed wilson, msft<\/p>\n

        LASTEDIT: 07\/03\/2013 12:33:28<\/p>\n

        KEYWORDS: Scripting Techniques, String Manipulation, Functions<\/p>\n

        HSG: HSG-7-10-13<\/p>\n

       .Link<\/p>\n

         Http:\/\/www.ScriptingGuys.com<\/p>\n

     #Requires -Version 2.0<\/p>\n

     #><\/p>\n

    Note<\/strong>  For more information about adding comment-based Help, see Automatically Add Comment-Based Help to your PowerShell Scripts<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Using the Get-LetterCount function<\/h2>\n

    I add the Get-LetterCount<\/strong> function and the alias to my Windows PowerShell ISE profile. I can run the function from inside the ISE or dot source it in the Windows PowerShell console. After the function loads and the alias is created, I use the alias and pass the string as shown here:<\/p>\n

    PS C:\\> c “A PowerShell Function to count string length”<\/p>\n

    string length is 44<\/p>\n

    When I call the function, I use the Get-Clipboard<\/strong> cmdlet (from the PSCX module) to verify that my string is indeed on the clipboard. This is shown here:<\/p>\n

    \"Image<\/a><\/p>\n

    I can now paste my tile into my Word document. Cool! Now, I need to decide what I will do with the two days I have saved with this function.<\/p>\n

    The complete script is uploaded to the Script Center Repository: Get String Letter Count Function<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    That is all there is to creating a Windows PowerShell function to count string length and copy the string to the clipboard. Join me tomorrow when I will talk about more cool Windows PowerShell stuff.<\/p>\n

    I invite you to follow me on Twitter<\/a> and Facebook<\/a>. If you have any questions, send email to me at scripter@microsoft.com<\/a>, or post your questions on the Official Scripting Guys Forum<\/a>. See you tomorrow. Until then, peace.<\/p>\n

    Ed Wilson, Microsoft Scripting Guy<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Summary: Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, talks about creating a Windows PowerShell function that counts a string length and copies it to the clipboard. Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, is here. It is hot and humid outside—89 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) and 75% humidity. That was the great thing about Madrid. Whereas, it was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":596,"featured_media":87096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[69,3,4,21,45],"class_list":["post-3261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scripting","tag-functions","tag-scripting-guy","tag-scripting-techniques","tag-string-manipulation","tag-windows-powershell"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":"

    Summary: Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, talks about creating a Windows PowerShell function that counts a string length and copies it to the clipboard. Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, is here. It is hot and humid outside—89 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) and 75% humidity. That was the great thing about Madrid. Whereas, it was […]<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/596"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}