Format-List: sort properties by name

Question

Is it possible to sort the output of the Format-List cmdlet by property name?
Suppose that I have an object $x with two properties \"A\" and \"B\", and when I run Format

Answer 1

Expanding on Christopher's idea, using get-member and format-list -Property:

$x | fl -property ($x| gm | sort name).name

Answer 2

This seems to work OK (edited so it accepts pipeline input):

function Format-SortedList
{
    param (
        [Parameter(ValueFromPipeline = $true)]
        [Object]$InputObject,
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $false)]
        [Switch]$Descending
    )

    process
    {
        $properties = $InputObject | Get-Member -MemberType Properties

        if ($Descending) {
            $properties = $properties | Sort-Object -Property Name -Descending
        }

        $longestName = 0
        $longestValue = 0

        $properties | ForEach-Object {
            if ($_.Name.Length -gt $longestName) {
                $longestName = $_.Name.Length
            }

            if ($InputObject."$($_.Name)".ToString().Length -gt $longestValue) {
                $longestValue = $InputObject."$($_.Name)".ToString().Length * -1
            }
        }

        Write-Host ([Environment]::NewLine)

        $properties | ForEach-Object { 
            Write-Host ("{0,$longestName} : {1,$longestValue}" -f $_.Name, $InputObject."$($_.Name)".ToString())
        }
    }
}

$Host, $MyInvocation | Format-SortedList
$Host, $MyInvocation | Format-SortedList -Descending

Answer 3

Nothing wrong with the accepted answer, but a really quick-and-dirty option for a one-off—that doesn't require having the collection already in a variable—might be...

... | Format-List | Out-String -Stream | Sort-Object

...which does a sort on each line of the output of Format-List.

Note that any property values that go onto the next line will be broken (and probably appear at the top of the output), but this could be fixed by the slightly-less-memorable...

... | Format-List | Out-String -Stream -Width ([Int32]::MaxValue) | Sort-Object

...at the expense of column indentation.

Of course, all object/pipeline info is lost by that Out-String call, although—considering the same is true of Format-List—you probably aren't going to care by that point.

Answer 4

The closest I can think of is to create a new psobject based off the old one but with the properties sorted e.g.:

$x | %{$obj = new-object psobject; `
       $_.psobject.properties | Sort Name | `
           %{Add-Member -Inp $obj NoteProperty $_.Name $_.Value}; $obj} | fl

You could get fancier and give the new psobject a typename that matches the old one, etc.

Answer 5

By using Select-Object with a calculated property (@{}) and then excluding it (-ExcludeProperty) you can also order the properties as you want. This works even when you don't know what's coming upfront.

@(
    [PSCustomObject]@{
        Color   = 'Green'
        Type    = 'Fruit'
        Name    = 'kiwi'
        Flavour = 'Sweet'
    }
) | Select-Object @{Name = 'Flavour'; Expression = { $_.Flavour } },
@{Name = 'Name'; Expression = { $_.Name } }, * -ExcludeProperty Name, Flavour |
Format-List

Output:

Flavour : Sweet
Name    : kiwi
Color   : Green
Type    : Fruit

Answer 6

If you are dealing with a small number of properties, you can specify their order with the -Property parameter.

Here is an example:

Format-List -Property Owner, Path

If you have a lot of properties, I am not sure there is any easy way to sort them in Format-List, like Roman said.