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Measure-Command

  • Reference
Module:
Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility

Measures the time it takes to run script blocks and cmdlets.

Syntax

Measure-Command
       [-InputObject <PSObject>]
       [-Expression] <ScriptBlock>
       [<CommonParameters>]

Description

The Measure-Command cmdlet runs a script block or cmdlet internally, times the execution of the operation, and returns the execution time.

Examples

Example 1: Measure a command

This command measures the time it takes to run a Get-EventLog command that gets the events in the Windows PowerShell event log.

Measure-Command { Get-EventLog "windows powershell" }

Example 2: Compare two outputs from Measure-Command

The first command measures the time it takes to process a recursive Get-ChildItem command that uses the -Path parameter to get only .txt files in the C:\Windows directory and its subdirectories.

The second command measures the time it takes to process a recursive Get-ChildItem command that uses the provider-specific -Filter parameter.

These commands show the value of using a provider-specific filter in PowerShell commands.

Measure-Command { Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Windows\*.txt -Recurse }

Days              : 0
Hours             : 0
Minutes           : 0
Seconds           : 8
Milliseconds      : 618
Ticks             : 86182763
TotalDays         : 9.9748568287037E-05
TotalHours        : 0.00239396563888889
TotalMinutes      : 0.143637938333333
TotalSeconds      : 8.6182763
TotalMilliseconds : 8618.2763

Measure-Command {Get-ChildItem C:\Windows -Filter "*.txt" -Recurse}

Days              : 0
Hours             : 0
Minutes           : 0
Seconds           : 1
Milliseconds      : 140
Ticks             : 11409189
TotalDays         : 1.32050798611111E-05
TotalHours        : 0.000316921916666667
TotalMinutes      : 0.019015315
TotalSeconds      : 1.1409189
TotalMilliseconds : 1140.9189

Example 3: Use the InputObject parameter of Measure-Command

This example shows how to use the InputObject parameter of Measure-Command. The ScriptBlock passed to the Expression parameter is executed once for each object passed, or piped into the InputObject parameter.

Note

Measure-Command still provides a measurement of overall ScriptBlock execution for every element passed to the InputObject parameter.

# Perform a simple operation to demonstrate the InputObject parameter
# Note that no output is displayed.
10, 20, 50 | Measure-Command -Expression {for($i=0; $i -lt $_;$i++) {$i} }

Days              : 0
Hours             : 0
Minutes           : 0
Seconds           : 0
Milliseconds      : 12
Ticks             : 122672
TotalDays         : 1.41981481481481E-07
TotalHours        : 3.40755555555556E-06
TotalMinutes      : 0.000204453333333333
TotalSeconds      : 0.0122672
TotalMilliseconds : 12.2672

Example 4: Displaying output of measured command

To display output of expression in Measure-Command you can use a pipe to Out-Default.

# Perform the same operation as above adding Out-Default to every execution.
# This will show that the ScriptBlock is in fact executing for every item.
10, 20, 50 | Measure-Command -Expression {for($i=0; $i -lt $_;$i++) {$i}; "$($_)" | Out-Default }

10
20
50


Days              : 0
Hours             : 0
Minutes           : 0
Seconds           : 0
Milliseconds      : 11
Ticks             : 113745
TotalDays         : 1.31649305555556E-07
TotalHours        : 3.15958333333333E-06
TotalMinutes      : 0.000189575
TotalSeconds      : 0.0113745
TotalMilliseconds : 11.3745

Parameters

-Expression

Specifies the expression that is being timed. Enclose the expression in braces ({}). The parameter name ("Expression") is optional.

Type:ScriptBlock
Position:0
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-InputObject

Objects bound to the InputObject parameter are optional input for the ScriptBlock passed to the Expression parameter. Inside the ScriptBlock, $_ can be used to reference the current object in the pipeline.

Type:PSObject
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

Inputs

PSObject

You can pipe an object to Measure-Command.

Outputs

TimeSpan

Measure-Command returns a time span object that represents the result.