Formatting

Color formatting

Adding color to your output

write-host -BackgroundColor DarkYellow -ForegroundColor Black "Bumblebee"

Short hand version

write-host -b DarkYellow -f Black "Bumblebee"

String formatting

Writing a variable the traditional way

$users = @('Bob','Alice','Susan')
write-host "Greetings from $users[0] to $users[1]"

Writing a variable with formatting and escape signs

$users = @('Bob','Alice','Susan')
write-host ("Greetings from {0} to {1} " -f $users[0],$users[1])
write-host ("Greetings from {1} to {0} " -f $users[0],$users[1])
write-host ("Greetings from {0,15} to {1,15} " -f $users[0],$users[1])
write-host ("Greetings from {0} `n`t to {1} " -f $users[0],$users[1])

Writing a variable with formatting

function PrettyPrint-Array {
    param(
            [string[]]$array = @()
    )

    write-host ("| {0,15} |" -f "Names")
    (0..18) | % { write-host -nonewline "#" }
    write-host ""

    foreach ($element in $array) {
        write-host ("| {0,15} |" -f $element)
    }
}
$users = @('Bob','Alice','Susan')
PrettyPrint-Array -array $users

Writing other types

write-host ("{0,-10} | {1,10}" -f "left","right")

write-host ("{0}" -f 3.1456)
write-host ("{0,10}" -f 3.1456) # threat it like a string

write-host ("{0:D10}" -f 3) # leading zero
write-host ("{0,15:D10}" -f 3) # leading zero and max size


write-host ("{0:N10}" -f 3.1456) # floats / numbers
write-host ("{0,15:N10}" -f 3.1456) # floats / numbers

write-host ("{0:X}" -f 14) # hexdecimal
write-host ("{0:C10}" -f 3.1456) # currency

write-host ("{0:D}" -f (get-date)) # 
write-host ("{0:u}" -f (get-date)) # sortable
write-host ("{0,30:yy MM dd hh mm ss}" -f (get-date)) # sortable
write-host (get-date).ToString("yy MM dd hh mm ss") #custom

write-host ("i want my brackets {{ {0} }}" -f (get-date))

Dot net related format.aspx#Format_Custom) Number Dates Composite

function Write-PingPong {
    param(
        [int]$height=20,
        [int]$width=60,
        [int]$left = 2,
        [int]$right = 2,
        [int]$ballx = 3,
        [int]$bally = 5
    )

    if ($left -lt 1) { $left = 1}
    if ($left -gt ($height-1)) { $left = $height-1}

    if ($right -lt 1) { $right = 1}
    if ($right -gt ($height-1)) { $right = $height-1}

    [int[]]$lefts = @(($left-1),$left,($left+1))
    [int[]]$rights = @(($right-1),$right,($right+1))




    $lines = @()

    $ln = ("+{0,$width}+" -f "").ToCharArray()
    foreach($i in (1..($width-1)))  {
        $ln[$i] = "-"
    }
    $lines += ($ln -join "")


    $ln = ("|{0,$width}|" -f "")
    foreach($i in (0..$height)) {
        $l = $ln.ToCharArray()
        if ($i -in $lefts) {
            $l[1] = '#'
        }
        if ($i -in $rights) {
            $l[$width-1] = '#'
        }
        if ($i -in $bally) {
            $l[$ballx] = '*'
        }
        $lines +=  ($l -join "")
    }

    $ln = ("+{0,$width}+" -f "").ToCharArray()
    foreach($i in (1..($width-1)))  {
        $ln[$i] = "-"
    }
    $lines +=  ($ln -join "")
    $joined = ($lines -join "`n")

    clear-host
    write-host $joined
}

function Play-PingPong {
    param(
        $dirx = +1,
        $diry = +1,
        $stepf = 1,
        $height = 20,
        $width = 60,
        $fps = 5,
        $playforstep = 500
    )
    [int]$msbetweenframes = 1000/$fps

    [int]$ballx = ($width/2) 
    [int]$bally = Get-Random -Minimum 0 -Maximum $height


    foreach ($runtime in (0..$playforstep)) {
        $skew = $( measure-command {
            $ballx = $ballx + ($dirx*$stepf)
            $bally = $bally + ($diry*$stepf)

            if ($ballx -ge ($width-1) -or $ballx -le  1 ) {
                $dirx = $dirx*-1
                $ballx = $ballx + ($dirx*$stepf*2)
            }  
            if ($bally -ge $height -or $bally -le  0 ) {
                $diry = $diry*-1
                $bally = $bally + ($diry*$stepf*2)
            }  

            write-pingpong -left $bally  -right $bally  -ballx $ballx -bally $bally -height $height -width $width 
        }).milliseconds

        if ($skew -lt $msbetweenframes) {
            start-sleep -milliseconds ($msbetweenframes-$skew)
        }

    }
}