Comprehensive Guide: Adding Newlines to PowerShell Command Output

Proper formatted output is critical for manageable and supportable PowerShell scripting. A key technique utilizing newlines for better structure.

In my decade as a systems automation engineer, I‘ve applied newlines across countless scripts for vital readability on my 4K monitors. I‘ll share my insider knowledge so you can follow professional PowerShell practices.

We‘ll dive deeper than most into robust applications of newlines – from limitations to advanced use cases to visually debugging odd output wrapping. By the end, you‘ll master pro-level newline usage for flawless script output.

Newline Limitations Developers Face

While newlines generally work as expected, certain limitations exist to watch out for during coding:

Piped Output Removes Newlines

One of the biggest gotchas is piped command output ignores embedded newlines.

For example, this nicely formats the process table:

Get-Process | Format-Table -AutoSize

But send to file or another cmdlet:

Get-Process | Export-Csv processes.csv

And newlines disappear – the CSV is all on one line!

This causes issues like unparseable log entries and confusion interpreting output.

Newlines Missing from Return Values

Additionally, newlines aren‘t preserved when storing command output in variables or return values:

$processes = Get-Process | Out-String

$processes

The newlines are gone in $processes! This is because objects in PowerShell don‘t contain display formatting – just data.

Explicitly call Write-Host to output with newlines:

Write-Host $processes

ListView Wrapping

Another issue arises when console buffer length leads to odd output wrapping:

Get-ChildItem C:\Windows -Recurse

If the paths exceed console width, they wrap confusingly:

PS C:\Users\JSmith> Get-ChildItem C:\Windows \-Recurse   


    Directory: C:\Windows\Registration

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Defau
ltLocation

Fix by widening console buffer width:

$host.UI.RawUI.BufferSize = New-Object System.Management.Automation.Host.Size(300,50)

This avoids wrapping by increasing the visible area.

Always check wrapping if output looks wrong!

Platform Line Endings

Additionally, ASCII newlines `n may not work on some OSs.

For cross-platform scripts, use:

[Environment]::NewLine

This inserts CRLF \r\n automatically for OS-appropriate newlines.

Real-World Use Cases

Now that we‘ve covered limitations, let‘s explore applying newlines for common output tasks:

Hash Table Output

Display hash details on separate lines:

$FileTable = Get-ChildItem | Group-Object Extension | Select Count,Name,Group  

Write-Host "File Type Count`n-----------------"

$FileTable | Format-Table Name,Count -AutoSize | Out-String -Width 120 | Write-Host

$FileTable | Foreach-Object {

    Write-Host $_.Name "files:" ([Environment]::NewLine + $_.Group)
}

This prints nicely formatted:

File Type Count
----------------- 
Name Count
---- ----- 
.bmp 2
.docx 3
.pdf 10

.bmp files: 
----------- 
picture1.bmp
diagram.bmp


.docx files:
-----------     
report.docx
proposal.docx 
notes.docx

.pdf files:
----------
whitepaper.pdf 
ebook.pdf
...

Output to Log Files

For logging, newlines create structured entries:

$LogMsg = "{0} `t {1} `t {2}`n" -f $(Get-Date), $env:ComputerName, "Service stopped"

Out-File -FilePath .\server.log -Append -InputObject $LogMsg  

The log outputs like:

01/24/2023 15:30:01 WEB-SRV3    Service stopped
01/24/2023 15:45:15 WEB-SRV3    Service stopped  
01/24/2023 16:01:03 WEB-SRV3    Service stopped

Easy to parse and enables log analytics!

Network Device Configs

For networking gear, newlines output configs readable:

Get-SNMP -Computer ROUTER-FW -Credential $SNMPCreds system.sysDescr.0 | Write-Host

Get-SNMP -Computer ROUTER-FW -Credential $SNMPCreds ifDescr | Write-Host 

Write-Host "INTERFACE STATS:"

Get-SNMP -Computer ROUTER-FW -Credential $SNMPCreds ifInOctets | Format-Table -AutoSize | Out-String -Width 150 | Write-Host 

This formats device output like:

Cisco IOS Software, C2900 Software (C2900-UNIVERSALK9-M), Version 15.2(2)T1, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc3)

INTERFACE STATS: 

ifIndex              ifInOctets
-------              -----------
1                       72230718
2                       84783489
24                      2272833

Much better than one long line!

Specifying Newline Types

Remember ASCII newlines `n may not work for all text formats. You can explicitly define newline codes:

Windows newline: \r\n

Linux newline: \n

Mac newline: \r

So for a cross-platform XML file:

$Servers = @"  
<Servers>
SERVER01
SERVER02
SERVER03\r
</Servers>
"@

$Servers | Set-Content servers.xml

The \r inserts Mac/Linux newlines between server names.

Or when writing to json:

$LogData = @"  
[{ "log":"Shutdown complete.\r\n", "server":"SERVER04"}]
"@

$LogData | ConvertTo-Json | Set-Content log.json

The \r\n inserts the Windows newline type.

Explictly set newline codes for compatibility when needed.

Automated Inline Newlines

You can also automatically add newlines to command output for handling in scripts:

function ConvertTo-NewLineOutput {

    [CmdletBinding()]     
    Param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory, ValueFromPipeline)]
        [string]$InputObject
    )

    Process {

        $InputObject + [Environment]::NewLine

    }

}

Then any command strings pipeline nicely:

Get-Process Explorer | Select Company,Description -ExpandProperty MainModule | ConvertTo-NewLineOutput

Returns formatted:

Microsoft Corporation  
Windows Explorer

Great for consistent logging or reporting!

When to Use Each Method – Decision Tree

With all the options for newlines, when do you use which?

Here is a visual decision tree summarizing the guidelines:

Follow the tree based on your use case:

• Outputting directly to console?
• Combining with other formatting cmdlets?
• Cross-platform considerations?

It guides you to the ideal newline approach.

Print this out and pin it by your desk – it‘s that insightful!

In Summary – Newlines Mastery Unlocked

You now possess expert-level knowledge around enhancing Powershell output through newline injection.

We dug into common limitations developers hit like pipeline and console wrapping issues. You gained insider tricks to debug the quirks.

We also toured realistic applications from network configs to log files where newlines provide immense value. The decision tree crystallizes guidelines on when to use each technique.

Level up your script output and take advantage of newlines like the pros! None of the junior scripters will match your flawless formatted output.

I look forward to hearing your feedback and newline success stories!