Measure-Command

Measures the time it takes to run script blocks and cmdlets.

Syntax

Measure-Command
       [-Expression] <ScriptBlock>
       [-InputObject <PSObject>]
       [<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

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

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

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 Windows PowerShell commands.

Required Parameters

-Expression

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

Type: ScriptBlock
Position: 0
Default value: None
Accept pipeline input: False
Accept wildcard characters: False

Optional Parameters

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

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\> .