PowerTip: Find Unique Types with PowerShell

Doctor Scripto

Summary: Learn an easy command to help find unique types with Windows PowerShell.

 How can I filter different types of objects from a command so that I have an example of each unique type?

 If you use the Get-Unique cmdlet with no switched parameters, many of the objects returned are the same type (the DirectoryInfo objects in this example):

PS C:> Get-ChildItem | Get-Unique

    Directory: C:

Mode                LastWriteTime     Length Name

—-                ————-     —— —-

d—-         6/17/2013   1:00 PM            Afolder

d—-         6/17/2013   1:00 PM            Bfolder

d-r–          6/2/2013  10:56 PM            data

d—-          3/9/2013   6:35 PM            DRIVERS

<output truncated>

  If you use the Get-Unique cmdlet with the –OnType switch, only one example of each of the type of object returns (a FileInfo object and a DirectoryInfo object in this example):

PS C:> Get-ChildItem | Get-Unique -OnType

    Directory: C:

Mode                LastWriteTime     Length Name

—-                ————-     —— —-

d—-         6/17/2013   1:00 PM            Afolder

-a—          3/9/2013   7:29 PM    4627788 MSIInstall.log

Doctor Scripto Scripter, PowerShell, vbScript, BAT, CMD

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