Vista - can format-wide display int32 or string as a wide ?

Given
dir | fw -c 8
displays file/directory entries as eight columns in a line. however,
1..8 | fw -c 8
or such
(gc any.txt) | % { if ($_.length -lt 8) {$_}} | fw -c 8
does not work.
Is there a way to make format-wide work ?
Thanks,
-- hayato

Hi hayato,

Format-Wide, and the rest of the Format-* Cmdlets, rely on a predetermined structure (View) provided by the system or extended by the user.
These Views target specific Types and, most of the time, one or more of their properties.
When a Type does not have a View, the system uses the default view. This is why Format-Wide returns each object in its own row, instead of columns.

Yes, but some effort is needed

1. Create custom view
2. Add a synthetic member to the String or Int32
3. Use Format-Wide's -Force switch

You can create a custom View for both System.String and System.Int32 Types by saving the following to a PS1XML file:

# let's call it myFormat.ps1xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Configuration>
<ViewDefinitions>
<View>
<Name>myView</Name>
<ViewSelectedBy>
<TypeName>System.String</TypeName>
<TypeName>System.Int32</TypeName>
</ViewSelectedBy>
<WideControl>
<WideEntries>
<WideEntry>
<WideItem>
<PropertyName>Me</PropertyName>
</WideItem>
</WideEntry>
</WideEntries>
</WideControl>
</View>
</ViewDefinitions>
</Configuration>
# myFormat.ps1xml

# after you save the file you can update the format data like this:
Update-FormatData -PrependPath myFormat.ps1xml

# we need to add the Me property...
1..99 | Add-Member ScriptProperty Me {$this} -PassThru | fw -c 8 -Force

# you can create a filter that adds the property...
filter Add-Me {
$_ | Add-Member ScriptProperty Me {$this} -PassThru
}

# ... and save some typing
1..99 | Add-Me | fw -c 8 -Force

# you can also use your view on strings
gc any.txt | Add-Me | fw -c 8 -Force

--
Robert

Format-Wide doesn't seem to work on simple, primitive types. You can wrap
them in a PSCustomObject like so:

1..8 | select @{n='num';e={"num $_"}} | fw -c 8

Try modifying your other example to:

gc any.txt | ?{$_.length -lt 8} | select @{n='ShortLine';e={$_}} | fw -c 8

--
Keith

"hayato" <hayato@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:098C44DF-517D-43D0-BC77-78CD3AC8DEFE@xxxxxx

Thanks for the reply. Robert, Keith
Both ways work and help me. It is also useful to dump array.
For example,
(gc -enc byte any.bin) | select @{n='num';e={"{0:x2}" -f $_}}| fw -c 16

-- hayato

This sure ain't intuitive

in .NET lingo you're saying that any value type won't work with Format-Wide?

I don't know what he underpinnings of Format-Wide are but one thinks (at
least me) that it wouldn't have been hard to work with types based off of
System.Value

:{

"Keith Hill [MVP]" wrote:

A simplification to
1..99 | Select-Object @{e={"$_"}} | fw -c 8

might better match the formatting of
dir | fw -c 8

Also try
dir | Select-Object @{e={"$_"}} | fw -c 8
It works fine.

I'm now trying to figure out why
$pwd; dir | Select-Object @{e={"$_"}} | fw -c 8
produced this output including the error diagnostic

Path
----
C:\Documents and Settings\Larry\My Documents\WindowsPowerShell
out-lineoutput : Object of type "Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Internal.Format.
FormatStartData" is not legal or not in the correct sequence. This is likely ca
used by a user-specified "format-wide" command which is conflicting with the de
fault formatting.
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidData: ( [out-lineoutput], InvalidOperat
ionException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : ConsoleLineOutputOutOfSequencePacket,Microsoft.P
owerShell.Commands.OutLineOutputCommand

- Larry


Keith Hill [MVP] wrote:

You're welcome.

Turns out it can be very simple.
By passing a ScriptBlock with the Current Pipeline Object to Format-Wide's -Property and enabling the Cmdlet's -Force switch is enough.

1..8 | fw {$_} -c 8 -f

gc -enc byte any.bin | fw {"{0:x2}" -f $_} -c 16 -f

Hope all the brouhaha about Format Data, Views and PS1XML files is not useless though

--
Robert

Has anyone taken a look at this?

- Larry

Larry__Weiss wrote:
PS C:> $pwd; dir | Select-Object @{e={"$_"}} | fw -c 8
produces an error...

PS C:> $pwd;
PS C:> dir | Select-Object @{e={"$_"}} | fw -c 8
does not produce an error.

and neither does
PS C:> $home; dir | Select-Object @{e={"$_"}} | fw -c 8

What's going on?