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PowerShell Help Syntax

If you are new to PowerShell or either you've been working for quite some time on Windows PowerShell one way or another you will still need to look or check the help statement.

Why would you need help on PowerShell if you consider yourself as an expert?

Well, if you can't lower your ego or pride and you have the guts to remember 2,300 or more cmdlets then you really don't to check the help statement.

As for me, Help statement  in PowerShell is always my companion.

Syntax of Help Statement in PowerShell:

Get-Help Name_of_CmdLet 

Like:

Get-Help Get-ChildItem

But to have a more detailed or helpful output.

Type:

Get-Help Get-ChildItem -Example

Above command will show examples of Get-ChildItem cmdlet.

You can also use the -detail parameter which will show examples and some description:

Get-Help Get-ChildItem -Detail

Or type:

Get-Help Get-ChildItem -Full

Basically, the parameters for help are: -Example -Detail and -Full



And another helpful command in PowerShell is Get-Alias

Aliases in PowerShell abbreviates cmdlets.

Like:

Get-Help GCI -Full 

is equivalent to: Get-Help Get-ChildItem -Full


Open PowerShell ISE or launch the PowerShell terminal.

Type: Get-Alias

It will display all the aliases, aliases  saves time for typing but could be confusing to read. But if you get the hang of it then it comes very handy. Save bytes and few type strokes.

Output below of Get-Alias is just a part of the output (it's not the whole output)

CommandType     Name      Definition
-----------             ----         ----------
Alias                    %           ForEach-Object
Alias                    ?            Where-Object
Alias                   cat          Get-Content
Alias                   cd           Set-Location
Alias                   chdir       Set-Location
Alias                   clc          Clear-Content
Alias                   clear       Clear-Host  
Alias                   clhy        Clear-History
Alias                   cli           Clear-Item  
Alias                   copy       Copy-Item  
Alias                   cp           Copy-Item  
Alias                   cpi          Copy-Item  
Alias                   del          Remove-Item
Alias                   diff         Compare-Object
Alias                  dir           Get-ChildItem
Alias                  ebp          Enable-PSBreakpoint
Alias                  echo        Write-Output    
Alias                  epal         Export-Alias    
Alias                  ft            Format-Table    
Alias                  gal          Get-Alias        
Alias                  gc           Get-Content      
Alias                  gci          Get-ChildItem  



Cheers! Hope it helps!!!


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