Measure-Command
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 : 1140.9189Example 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++) {$i} }
Days : 0
Hours : 0
Minutes : 0
Seconds : 0
Milliseconds : 12
Ticks : 122672
TotalDays : 1.41981481481481E-07
TotalHours : 3.40755555555556E-06
TotalMinutes : 0.000204453333333333
TotalSeconds : 0.0122672
TotalMilliseconds : 12.2672Example 4: Displaying output of measured command
To display output of expression in Measure-Command you can use a pipe to Out-Default.
# Perform the same operation as above adding Out-Default to every execution.
# This will show that the ScriptBlock is in fact executing for every item.
10, 20, 50 | Measure-Command -Expression {for($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 : 11.3745Parameters
-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
You can pipe an object to Measure-Command.
Outputs
Measure-Command returns a time span object that represents the result.