After working with a lot of .NET type issues lately I wanted to encapsulate the functionality I have worked on recently into a function...and, so, here we go. The great thing about this function is that it returns A LOT (yes, I mean A LOT) of information about the objects passed to the function. I put tips on how to work with it in the comment-based help, but, be sure to play around with it a bit and try using sort and select to get more meaningful output on large collections. Also, try piping output to Select -First 1 * a few times to see what properties are exposed. Feel free to provide suggestions on how to improve this one. I am sure there are lots of things that can be added, its just a matter of knowing what to put in and not overload folks.
function Get-ObjectInformation
{
<#
.SYNOPSIS
A function used to explore object type information.
.DESCRIPTION
The Get-ObjectInformation function provides access to otherwise
buried .NET reflection functionality. There is a large collection of
switch parameters to help give a large sample of the members for
an object passed to the function.
.NOTES
Author: Will Steele (wlsteele@gmail.com)
Last edited date: 7/19/2012
Version 1.0
Some of these will return large collections, depending on the assembly
being referenced, so, it is sometimes a good idea to write to a variable
first, examine the object size (using .Count) and select -first 5. Once
you have a small sample set you can then determine which fields you need
for the specific investigation you are using. The key to realize here
is that many of these are in depth .NET objects and they have very
large property collections.
.PARAMETER Object
A mandatory parameter indicating the object to examine.
.PARAMETER GetConstructors
A switch parameter indicating whether it should return the constructor
information or not. Default is False.
.PARAMETER GetCustomAttributes
A switch parameter indicating whether it should return the Custom
Attributes or not. Default is False.
.PARAMETER GetCustomAttributesData
A switch parameter indicating whether it should return the
Custom Attributes Data or not. Default is False.
.PARAMETER GetExportedTypes
A switch parameter indicating whether it should return the Exported
Types or not. Default is False. NOTE: These are exported types of
the assembly as a whole, not just for the referenced type.
.PARAMETER GetGenericArguments
A switch parameter indicating whether it should return the Generic
Arguments or not. Default is False.
.PARAMETER GetHashCode
A switch parameter indicating whether it should return the Hash
Code or not. Default is False.
.PARAMETER GetLoadedModules
A switch parameter indicating whether it should return the Loaded
Modules or not. Default is False.
.PARAMETER GetManifestResourceNames
A switch parameter indicating whether it should return the
Manifest Resource Names or not. Default is False.
.PARAMETER GetMembers
A switch parameter indicating whether it should return the Members
or not. Default is False.
.PARAMETER GetMethods
A switch parameter indicating whether it should return the Methods
or not. Default is False.
.PARAMETER GetModules
A switch parameter indicating whether it should return the Modules
or not. Default is False.
.PARAMETER GetName
A switch parameter indicating whether it should return the Name
or not. Default is False.
.PARAMETER GetReferencedAssemblies
A switch parameter indicating whether it should return the Referenced
Assemblies or not. Default is False.
.PARAMETER GetType
A switch parameter indicating whether it should return the Type
information or not. Default is False.
.PARAMETER Summary
A switch parameter indicating whether it should return the function
summary of which switches are $true. Default is False.
.INPUTS
Object
.OUTPUTS
Returns a variety of output pertaining to the input objects type
data.
.EXAMPLE 1
$string = "string"
Get-ObjectInformation -Object $string -GetType
System.String
.EXAMPLE 2
$psobject = New-Object -TypeName PSObject
Get-ObjectInformation -Object $psobject -GetExportedTypes | sort name
IsPublic IsSerial Name BaseType
-------- -------- ---- --------
True True ActionPreference System.Enum
True True ActionPreferenceStopException System.Management.Automation.RuntimeException
True False AdapterCodeMethods System.Object
.
.
.
True False WSManConfigurationOption System.Management.Automation.PSTransportOption
True False WSManConnectionInfo System.Management.Automation.Runspaces.RunspaceConnection...
True False WSManServerChannelEvents System.Object
.EXAMPLE 3
$contentservice = New-WebServiceProxy -Uri http://services.msdn.microsoft.com/ContentServices/ContentService.asmx -Namespace contentservice
Get-ObjectInformation -Object $contentservice -GetReferencedAssemblies -Summary
Version Name
------- ----
4.0.0.0 mscorlib
4.0.0.0 System.Web.Services
4.0.0.0 System
4.0.0.0 System.Xml
--- Information Summary ---
