I want PowerShell range operator to work on few other ranges then just
numbers

a..z or ('a'..'z') : should produce list of alphabets starting from a
ending at z.



Or there should be some way to define custom lists like excel in PowerShell,
which can be accessed using range operators.



So I can do something like 'jan'..'dec'. , sun..sat



I realize that few things can still be done using either .Net
([Enum]::GetValues([DayOfWeek]))



But it will be really nice to write



a..z

rather then



[char[]](([int][char]'a')..([int][char]'z'))





Let me know if I am the only one who feels this way.

"xshell" <xshell@nospam> wrote in message
news:uoNDene0GHA.4264@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>I want PowerShell range operator to work on few other ranges then just
>numbers
>
> a..z or ('a'..'z') : should produce list of alphabets starting from a
> ending at z.
I like this idea. The ability to do things like 'a'..'z' or even
'f01'..'f09' would be nice, and I can think of a number of uses.

> Or there should be some way to define custom lists like excel in
> PowerShell, which can be accessed using range operators.
>
> So I can do something like 'jan'..'dec'. , sun..sat
On the other hand, this might be going a bit far. :-) If you want a way to
define custom lists, I'd say to use a function:

function months
{
return ('jan','feb','mar'...'dec')
}

>> So I can do something like 'jan'..'dec'. , sun..sat
> On the other hand, this might be going a bit far. :-) If you want a way
> to define custom lists, I'd say to use a function:
>
> function months
> {
> return ('jan','feb','mar'...'dec')
> }

And if you want to be able to do 'mar'..'jun' or something, you could create
a months function that takes a numeric range:

months(2..5) --> ('mar','apr','may','jun')

If you don't mind converting months to month ordinals. :-)

Or simply an array:

$months = ('jan','feb','mar'...'dec')

and then you can do:

$months[2..5] --> ('mar','apr','may','jun')

Or even:

$months[-1..1] --> ('dec','jan','feb')

Actually, this was one of the features that I initially expected to be
supported too, when I first learned about PowerShell's range operator.

The syntax 'a'..'z' very much reminds me of good old Turbo Pascal days.
In case you're not familiar with Pascal (anymore), just have a look at the
examples on this website:

http://www.schoenleber.org/pascal/pascal1-08.html

I agree that this syntax may be very usefull, so if it doesn't break
something else, I would very much love to see something like this in
PowerShell as well!

--
greetings
dreeschkind

"xshell" wrote:

> I want PowerShell range operator to work on few other ranges then just
> numbers
>
> a..z or ('a'..'z') : should produce list of alphabets starting from a
> ending at z.
>
>
>
> Or there should be some way to define custom lists like excel in PowerShell,
> which can be accessed using range operators.
>
>
>
> So I can do something like 'jan'..'dec'. , sun..sat
>
>
>
> I realize that few things can still be done using either .Net
> ([Enum]::GetValues([DayOfWeek]))
>
>
>
> But it will be really nice to write
>
>
>
> a..z
>
> rather then
>
>
>
> [char[]](([int][char]'a')..([int][char]'z'))
>
>
>
> Let me know if I am the only one who feels this way.
>
>
>
>

On Wed, 6 Sep 2006 15:19:02 -0700, dreeschkind
<dreeschkind@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>Actually, this was one of the features that I initially expected to be
>supported too, when I first learned about PowerShell's range operator.
>
>The syntax 'a'..'z' very much reminds me of good old Turbo Pascal days.
>In case you're not familiar with Pascal (anymore), just have a look at the
>examples on this website:
>
>http://www.schoenleber.org/pascal/pascal1-08.html
>
>I agree that this syntax may be very usefull, so if it doesn't break
>something else, I would very much love to see something like this in
>PowerShell as well!

I'd vote for this too.

I was going to say (you beat me to it!) that this reminded me
instantly of Pascal and the early days of my CS degree back before the
meteoric rise of C and its decendents. Heady times I'm sure. DCL was
around about then too - back in the early 80s

I remember a project to write a Pascal compiler (in C!) - I added
error checking terminal symbols in a C enum and still recall my
feeling that the C enum was nowhere near as useful as the Pascal
enumerated type.

From http://www.macdonald.egate.net/CompS...cal/henum.html

The type is declared as an ordinal list in the type section such as
the following one for the days of the week.

type
days = ( SUN, MON, TUES, WED, THURS, FRI, SAT );

day : days;

could be assigned a value as follows

day := TUES

The use of the enumerated type permits loops to be defined such as the
following.

for day := SUN to SAT do

Please post a bug on the connect site for this. We'd discussed supporting
this early on but it got dropped from version 1. Voting for it on connect
will help get it back on the radar. Thanks.

-bruce

--
Bruce Payette [MSFT]
Windows PowerShell Technical Lead
Microsoft Corporation
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.



"Chris Warwick" <news@remove.this.bit.nuney.com> wrote in message
news:d0kuf2tf48f5rpgkv0oq2u8nfgi74adf5l@4ax.com...
> On Wed, 6 Sep 2006 15:19:02 -0700, dreeschkind
> <dreeschkind@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
>>Actually, this was one of the features that I initially expected to be
>>supported too, when I first learned about PowerShell's range operator.
>>
>>The syntax 'a'..'z' very much reminds me of good old Turbo Pascal days.
>>In case you're not familiar with Pascal (anymore), just have a look at the
>>examples on this website:
>>
>>http://www.schoenleber.org/pascal/pascal1-08.html
>>
>>I agree that this syntax may be very usefull, so if it doesn't break
>>something else, I would very much love to see something like this in
>>PowerShell as well!
>
> I'd vote for this too.
>
> I was going to say (you beat me to it!) that this reminded me
> instantly of Pascal and the early days of my CS degree back before the
> meteoric rise of C and its decendents. Heady times I'm sure. DCL was
> around about then too - back in the early 80s
>
> I remember a project to write a Pascal compiler (in C!) - I added
> error checking terminal symbols in a C enum and still recall my
> feeling that the C enum was nowhere near as useful as the Pascal
> enumerated type.
>
> From http://www.macdonald.egate.net/CompS...cal/henum.html
>
> The type is declared as an ordinal list in the type section such as
> the following one for the days of the week.
>
> type
> days = ( SUN, MON, TUES, WED, THURS, FRI, SAT );
>
> day : days;
>
> could be assigned a value as follows
>
> day := TUES
>
> The use of the enumerated type permits loops to be defined such as the
> following.
>
> for day := SUN to SAT do
>

Tip for getting a Range of Days

MowPS>1..7 |% {(get-culture).DateTimeFormat.DayNames[($_ - 1)]}
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
MowPS>1..7 |%
{([System.Globalization.CultureInfo]"nl-nl").DateTimeFormat.DayNames[($_ -
1)]}
zondag
maandag
dinsdag
woensdag
donderdag
vrijdag
zaterdag

Tip for getting a Range of Months

MowPS>1..7 |%
{([System.Globalization.CultureInfo]"nl-nl").DateTimeFormat.Monthnames[($_ -
1)]}
januari
februari
maart
april
mei
juni
juli

MowPS>1..12 |% {(get-date "2006/$_/1").tostring('MMM')}
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
MowPS>1..12 |% {(get-date "2006/$_/1").tostring('MMMM')}
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

"Bruce Payette [MSFT]" wrote:

> Please post a bug on the connect site for this. We'd discussed supporting
> this early on but it got dropped from version 1. Voting for it on connect
> will help get it back on the radar. Thanks.
>
> -bruce
>
> --
> Bruce Payette [MSFT]
> Windows PowerShell Technical Lead
> Microsoft Corporation
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
>
>
>
> "Chris Warwick" <news@remove.this.bit.nuney.com> wrote in message
> news:d0kuf2tf48f5rpgkv0oq2u8nfgi74adf5l@4ax.com...
> > On Wed, 6 Sep 2006 15:19:02 -0700, dreeschkind
> > <dreeschkind@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> >
> >>Actually, this was one of the features that I initially expected to be
> >>supported too, when I first learned about PowerShell's range operator.
> >>
> >>The syntax 'a'..'z' very much reminds me of good old Turbo Pascal days.
> >>In case you're not familiar with Pascal (anymore), just have a look at the
> >>examples on this website:
> >>
> >>http://www.schoenleber.org/pascal/pascal1-08.html
> >>
> >>I agree that this syntax may be very usefull, so if it doesn't break
> >>something else, I would very much love to see something like this in
> >>PowerShell as well!
> >
> > I'd vote for this too.
> >
> > I was going to say (you beat me to it!) that this reminded me
> > instantly of Pascal and the early days of my CS degree back before the
> > meteoric rise of C and its decendents. Heady times I'm sure. DCL was
> > around about then too - back in the early 80s
> >
> > I remember a project to write a Pascal compiler (in C!) - I added
> > error checking terminal symbols in a C enum and still recall my
> > feeling that the C enum was nowhere near as useful as the Pascal
> > enumerated type.
> >
> > From http://www.macdonald.egate.net/CompS...cal/henum.html
> >
> > The type is declared as an ordinal list in the type section such as
> > the following one for the days of the week.
> >
> > type
> > days = ( SUN, MON, TUES, WED, THURS, FRI, SAT );
> >
> > day : days;
> >
> > could be assigned a value as follows
> >
> > day := TUES
> >
> > The use of the enumerated type permits loops to be defined such as the
> > following.
> >
> > for day := SUN to SAT do
> >
>
>
>

And for the Alphabet Range :

MowPS>Function get-CharRange
([char]$from,[char]$to){[char[]]([int][char]$from..[int][char]$to)}
MowPS>get-CharRange a g
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
MowPS>get-CharRange o k
o
n
m
l
k

Greetings /\/\o\/\/

Here's a helpful script to give you an arbitrary range operator:

## Range.ps1
## Support ranges on variable types other than numeric
##
## range Stop Inquire System.Management.Automation.ActionPreference
## range Friday Monday DayOfWeek
## range e g char

param([string] $first, [string] $second, [string] $type)

$rangeStart = [int] ($first -as $type)
$rangeEnd = [int] ($second -as $type)

$rangeStart..$rangeEnd | % { $_ -as $type }

--
Lee Holmes [MSFT]
Windows PowerShell Development
Microsoft Corporation
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

"/\/\o\/\/ [MVP]" <oMVP@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:C02917C1-2CD0-4472-BFD6-2D9E5DADA94A@microsoft.com...
> And for the Alphabet Range :
>
> MowPS>Function get-CharRange
> ([char]$from,[char]$to){[char[]]([int][char]$from..[int][char]$to)}
> MowPS>get-CharRange a g
> a
> b
> c
> d
> e
> f
> g
> MowPS>get-CharRange o k
> o
> n
> m
> l
> k
>
> Greetings /\/\o\/\/
>