EmitObjects

Whenever possible, functions (especially) and scripts (to a lesser degree) should emit custom objects, not just text. This ensures that the output of these constructs can be piped to other cmdlets, like Where-Object, Sort-Object, and so forth, further extending PowerShell's capabilities.

To create a custom object:

$obj = New-Object PSObject

To add properties to the object:

$obj | Add-Member NoteProperty "MyPropertyName" "MyValue"

And repeat as needed to add additional properties. Then output the object to the pipeline:

Write $obj

These output objects can then be sorted, grouped, filtered, and so forth, making your code behave more like a "real" PowerShell cmdlet.

Contributed by Don Jones