Consider adding formatting

[lzybkr]

It might be useful to add custom formatting for some types, e.g. TimeSpan. The default display for TimeSpan isn't that good, the Humanize method looks much better, Use case:

Measure-Command { dir }

The output should be, well, humanized. In my own personal profile, I use something like:

<View>
<Name>Timespan</Name>
  <ViewSelectedBy>
    <TypeName>System.TimeSpan</TypeName>
  </ViewSelectedBy>
  <CustomControl>
    <CustomEntries>
      <CustomEntry>
        <CustomItem>
          <ExpressionBinding>
            <ScriptBlock>
$d = $_.Days; $h = $_.Hours; $m = $_.Minutes; $as = "","s"
$(if ($d) { "{0} day{1}," -f $d, $as[$d -gt 1] }
  if ($h) { "{0} hour{1}," -f $h, $as[$h -gt 1] }
  if ($m) { "{0} minute{1}," -f $m, $as[$m -gt 1] }
  "{0}.{1}s" -f $_.Seconds, $_.Milliseconds.ToString('D3')) -join " "
</ScriptBlock>
          </ExpressionBinding>
        </CustomItem>
      </CustomEntry>
    </CustomEntries>
  </CustomControl>
</View>   

[dfinke]

Thanks Jason, will do.

[cdhunt]

The format for TimeSpan is finished. I'm trying to get a format for DirectoryInfo and FileInfo, but I'm struggling.

Something like:

Mode   LastWritten    Length (MB) Name
----   -----------    ----------- ----
d----- 3 months ago               addins
d----- 2 months ago               appcompat
d----- 2 months ago               AppPatch
d----- 23 hours ago               AppReadiness
d-r--- 3 days ago                 assembly
d----- 3 months ago               bcastdvr

[lzybkr]

Neat idea. PowerShell Community Extensions does the "Length (MB)" thing, but not the cool LastWritten.

You can look at how they did it: http://pscx.codeplex.com/

[cdhunt]

Getting closer. Works for either DirectoryInfo or FileInfo, but not both. Back to reading the help.

posh> ls -file

Mode   LastWritten   Length Name
----   -----------   ------ ----
-a---l 3 months ago   61 KB bfsvc.exe
-a--s- 6 hours ago    66 KB bootstat.dat
-a---- 6 days ago     10 KB cfgall.ini
-a---- 4 months ago    1 KB cfgrs.ini
-a---- 4 months ago   134 B cfgrs_ex.ini
-a---- 2 months ago    6 KB comsetup.log

[dfinke]

Looking good

[lzybkr]

Look at C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\FileSystem.format.ps1xml - you'll see SelectionSetName - it lets you specify formatting for a group of related types. Also note EntrySelectedBy - this can be used to do formatting on just one of the types in the group.