Measure-Command

JuanPablo Jofre|Last Updated: 12/17/2016

3 Contributors

SYNOPSIS

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 the time to run a command

PS C:\> Measure-Command { Get-EventLog "windows powershell" }

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

Example 2: Use a provider-specific filter

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

PS C:\>
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

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

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.

PARAMETERS

-Expression

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

Type: ScriptBlock
Parameter Sets: (All)
Aliases: 

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

-InputObject

Specifies objects representing the expressions to be measured. Enter a variable that contains the objects or type a command or expression that gets the objects.

Type: PSObject
Parameter Sets: (All)
Aliases: 

Required: False
Position: Named
Default value: None
Accept pipeline input: True (ByValue)
Accept wildcard characters: False

CommonParameters

This cmdlet supports the common parameters: -Debug, -ErrorAction, -ErrorVariable, -InformationAction, -InformationVariable, -OutVariable, -OutBuffer, -PipelineVariable, -Verbose, -WarningAction, and -WarningVariable. For more information, see about_CommonParameters (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=113216).

INPUTS

System.Management.Automation.PSObject

You can pipe an object to Measure-Command.

OUTPUTS

System.TimeSpan

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

NOTES

For more information, type Get-Help Measure-Command -detailed. For technical information, type Get-Help Measure-Command -full.
When specifying multiple values for a parameter, use commas to separate the values. For example, <parameter-name> <value1>, <value2>.

Trace-Command

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