I use this to get a list of folders containing .h files. **
$type = "*.h"
$HDIRS = dir .\$type -Recurse |
Select-Object Directory -Unique |
Format-Table -HideTableHeaders
** It gives me a list of folders. Now I want "-I " before every foldername. Common string manipulation doesn't seem to work
You still have rich objects after the select so to manipulate the strings you have to reference the one property you've selected "Directory"
$type = "*.h"
$HDIRS = Dir .\$type -Recurse |
Select-Object Directory -Unique |
ForEach-Object{
$_.Directory = "-I" + $_.Directory
$_
} |
Format-Table -HideTableHeaders
This will result in $HDIRS looking like a list of folder paths like -IC:\temp\something\something...
However, the format output objects are generally not suitable for further consumption. It looks like you're interested in the strings you could simply make this a flat array of strings like:
$type = "*.h"
$HDIRS = Dir .\$type" -Recurse |
Select-Object -ExpandProperty Directory -Unique |
ForEach-Object{ "-I" + $_ }
The mantra goes filter left, format right.
Our data:
$type = '.\*.h'
Get-ChildItem -Path $type -Recurse
The manipulation (filter):
Select-Object { "-I $($_.Directory)" } -Unique
And the format:
Format-Table -HideTableHeaders
In many cases, PowerShell cmdlets allow you to pass scriptblocks (closures) to evaluate to values and that's what I'm doing above with the Select-Object call.
Format-*cmdlets DO NOT give you a string - nor do they give you standard PoSh objects. instead, they give you the chopped up chunks of your objects wrapped in formatting code. ///// so, DO NOT use them for anything other than FINAL output to the screen or a plain text file.