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.
Note
Script blocks run by Measure-Command
run in the current scope, not a child scope.
Examples
Example 1: Measure a command
This example 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: Piping input to Measure-Command
Objects that are piped to Measure-Command
are available to the script block that is passed to the
Expression parameter. The script block is executed once for each object on the pipeline.
# 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
Example 5: Measuring execution in a child scope
Measure-Command
runs the script block in the current scope, so the script block can modify values
in the current scope. To avoid changes to the current scope, you must wrap the script block in
braces ({}
) and use the invocation operator (&
) to execute the block in a child scope.
$foo = 'Value 1'
$null = Measure-Command { $foo = 'Value 2' }
$foo
$null = Measure-Command { & { $foo = 'Value 3' } }
$foo
Value 2
Value 2
For more information about the invocation operator, see about_Operators.
Parameters
-Expression
Specifies the expression that is being timed. Enclose the expression in braces ({}
).
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 script block passed to the
Expression parameter. Inside the script block, $_
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 this cmdlet.
Outputs
This cmdlet returns a time span object representing the result.
Related Links
PowerShell