Write-Host

Applies To: Windows PowerShell 2.0

Writes customized output to a host.

Syntax

Write-Host [[-Object] <Object>] [-BackgroundColor {<Black> | <DarkBlue> | <DarkGreen> | <DarkCyan> | <DarkRed> | <DarkMagenta> | <DarkYellow> | <Gray> | <DarkGray> | <Blue> | <Green> | <Cyan> | <Red> | <Magenta> | <Yellow> | <White>}] [-ForegroundColor {<Black> | <DarkBlue> | <DarkGreen> | <DarkCyan> | <DarkRed> | <DarkMagenta> | <DarkYellow> | <Gray> | <DarkGray> | <Blue> | <Green> | <Cyan> | <Red> | <Magenta> | <Yellow> | <White>}] [-NoNewline] [-Separator <Object>] [<CommonParameters>]

Description

The Write-Host cmdlet customizes output. You can specify the color of text by using the ForegroundColor parameter, and you can specify the background color by using the BackgroundColor parameter. The Separator parameter lets you specify a string to use to separate displayed objects. The particular result depends on the program that is hosting Windows PowerShell.

Parameters

-BackgroundColor <ConsoleColor>

Specifies the background color. There is no default.

Required?	false
Position?	named
Default Value	None
Accept Pipeline Input?	false
Accept Wildcard Characters?	false

-ForegroundColor <ConsoleColor>

Specifies the text color. There is no default.

Required?	false
Position?	named
Default Value	None
Accept Pipeline Input?	false
Accept Wildcard Characters?	false

-NoNewline

Specifies that the content displayed in the console does not end with a newline character.

Required?	false
Position?	named
Default Value	None
Accept Pipeline Input?	false
Accept Wildcard Characters?	false

-Object <Object>

Objects to display in the console.

Required?	false
Position?	1
Default Value	None
Accept Pipeline Input?	true (ByValue)
Accept Wildcard Characters?	false

-Separator <Object>

String to the output between objects displayed on the console.

Required?	false
Position?	named
Default Value	None
Accept Pipeline Input?	false
Accept Wildcard Characters?	false

<CommonParameters>

This command supports the common parameters: Verbose, Debug, ErrorAction, ErrorVariable, OutBuffer, OutVariable, WarningAction, and WarningVariable. For more information, see about_CommonParameters.

Inputs and Outputs

The input type is the type of the objects that you can pipe to the cmdlet. The return type is the type of the objects that the cmdlet returns.

Inputs	System.Object You can pipe objects to be written to the host.
Outputs	None Write-Host sends the objects to the host. It does not return any objects. However, the host might display the objects that Write-Host sends to it.

Example 1

C:\PS>write-host "no newline test " -nonewline

no newline test C:\PS>

Description

-----------

This command displays the input to the console, but because of the NoNewline parameter, the output is followed directly by the prompt.

Example 2

C:\PS>write-host (2,4,6,8,10,12) -Separator ", +2= "

2, +2= 4, +2= 6, +2= 8, +2= 10, +2= 12

Description

-----------

This command displays the even numbers from 2 through 12. The Separator parameter is used to add the string , +2= (comma, space, +, 2, =, space).

Example 3

C:\PS>write-host (2,4,6,8,10,12) -Separator ", -> " -foregroundcolor DarkGreen -backgroundcolor white

Description

-----------

This command displays the even numbers from 2 through 12. It uses the ForegroundColor parameter to output dark green text and the BackgroundColor parameter to display a white background.

Example 4

C:\PS>write-host "Red on white text." -ForegroundColor red -BackgroundColor white

Red on white text.

Description

-----------

This command displays the string "Red on white text." The text is red, as defined by the ForegroundColor parameter. The background is white, as defined by the BackgroundColor parameter.

See Also

Concepts

Write-Verbose
Write-Error
Write-Progress
Write-Debug
Write-Output
Write-Warning
Out-Host