How do I write out a string whose length is dependent upon a user's entry's length?

Question

I'm writing a script that has a lot of output, and can take multiple computer names. The output announces the computer name, then a lot of info about that particular computer. I want to have a series of #s above and below where it announces the computer name before each section of info, but would like to see if I can have the amount of #s be the same as the length of the provided computer name(s). For example:

########
COMPNAME
########

or

##############
LONGERCOMPNAME
##############

I'd rather not have to have an if else for every possible case, such as

if ($compname.length -eq "8") {
  Write-Host "########"
  Write-Host "$compname"
  Write-Host "########"
} elseif ($compname -eq "9") {
  Write-Host "#########"
  Write-Host "$compname"
  Write-Host "#########"

and so on. If I have to, I will, it'd just be ten of those or so. Or I could just use some amount of #s that will always definitely cover at least the max length a computer name might be.

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 04 '17 at 00:18

6

You're gonna love this feature of PowerShell. You can "multiply" a string.

Try this:

$sep = '@'

Write-Output ($sep*5)

$names = "Hello World", "me too", "goodbye"

$names | % {
Write-Output ($sep*($_.Length))
Write-Output $_
Write-Output ($sep*($_.Length))
}

OUTPUT

@@@@@
@@@@@@@@@@@
Hello World
@@@@@@@@@@@
@@@@@@
me too
@@@@@@
@@@@@@@
goodbye
@@@@@@@

answered Feb 04 '17 at 00:18

Kory Gill

6,993
1
25
33

Thank you, Kory! This is exactly what I was looking for. I've changed my mind a little about the formatting I want to use, but this answers my question perfectly. – Casspers Feb 06 '17 at 16:55

Esperento57 · Answer 2 · 2017-02-05T10:53:50.653

0

you can do this

$NbChar=5


#method 1 (best)
'@' * $NbChar

#method 2
New-Object  System.String "@", $NbChar

#method 3
-join (1..$NbChar | %{"@"})

#method 4
"".PadLeft($NbChar, '@')

edited Feb 05 '17 at 10:53

answered Feb 04 '17 at 08:45

Esperento57

16,521
3
39
45

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:53

0

I'd recommend wrapping Kory Gill's suggestion in a custom function, so that you have an easy way of formatting any given name:

function Format-ComputerName([string]$ComputerName) {
  $separator = '#' * $ComputerName.Length
  '{0}{1}{2}{1}{0}' -f $separator, [Environment]::NewLine, $ComputerName
}

edited May 23 '17 at 11:53

Community

1
1

answered Feb 04 '17 at 13:39

Ansgar Wiechers

193,178
25
254
328

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 04 '17 at 16:40

Or a fixed-width banner:

"{0}`r`n# {1,-76} #`r`n{0}" -f ('#' * 80), $compname;

e.g.:

################################################################################
# LONGERCOMPNAME                                                               #
################################################################################

You can also add dates, times, Etc.:

"{0}`r`n# {1:G} : {2,-54} #`r`n{0}" -f ('#' * 80), (Get-Date), $compname;

e.g.:

################################################################################
# 04/02/2017 16:42:07 : LONGERCOMPNAME                                         #
################################################################################

More info on string formatting here

How do I write out a string whose length is dependent upon a user's entry's length?

4 Answers4