# Empty folder size value should be set to zero **URL:** \ **Category:** PowerShell Help\ **Created:** [December 16, 2020, 3:36am UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/empty-folder-size-value-should-be-set-to-zero/15401 "2020-12-16T03:36:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![googleuser9](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.powershell.org/googleuser9/32/28_2.png) [@googleuser9](https://forums.powershell.org/u/googleuser9)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2020, 3:36am UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/empty-folder-size-value-should-be-set-to-zero/15401/1 "2020-12-16T03:36:05Z")
We use the following instruction to calculate a folder size gci c:\my\_folder | measure Length -sum However, if the folder is empty, this instruction returns an error. This happens in PowerShell 5 to PowerShell 7. The error message is: Measure-Object: Cannot process argument because the value of argument “Property” is not valid. Change the value of the “Property” argument and run the operation again. IMO, Measure-Object’s behaviour is correct. So the culprit is the folder object returned by PowerShell. The size property of folder object should be set to zero by default. How to make PowerShell developer take a look at this issue? Could someone file a report? Thanks ---
**Author:** ![adminofthings](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/90ced4/32.png) [@adminofthings](https://forums.powershell.org/u/adminofthings)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2020, 4:32am UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/empty-folder-size-value-should-be-set-to-zero/15401/2 "2020-12-16T04:32:34Z")
I cannot reproduce this error with Get-ChildItem as it just returns null. Get-Item does return the error, however, in PowerShell Core. Since Length is a property of files, I’d consider this expected behavior. If you feel the need to report an issue, just go to [Github](https://github.com/PowerShell/powershell/issues) and report it. Personally, I would just code for the condition: ``` if ($length = (Get-ChildItem 'c:\my_folder' | Measure Length -Sum -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue).Sum) { $length } else { 0 } ``` ---
**Author:** ![googleuser9](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.powershell.org/googleuser9/32/28_2.png) [@googleuser9](https://forums.powershell.org/u/googleuser9)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2020, 8:48pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/empty-folder-size-value-should-be-set-to-zero/15401/3 "2020-12-16T20:48:04Z")
I don’t know why you can’t reproduce this error. I get it all the time. From Win 10 to Windows Server 2016 to 2019. All the time. You said length is a property of file object. OK. But that doesn’t mean we can’t add this property to folder object. Thanks for your code. I knew I could make a larger code to cope with this empty folder situation, but that makes the code very **cumbersome**. The advantage of using PowerShell is that we could use very compact code to do a lot of works. If we are forced to use cumbersome, better call the language InfirmityShell rather than PowerShell 😄 I’ve just filed on Github at [Empty folder size value should be set to zero · Issue #14449 · PowerShell/PowerShell · GitHub](https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/issues/14449) ---
**Author:** ![googleuser9](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.powershell.org/googleuser9/32/28_2.png) [@googleuser9](https://forums.powershell.org/u/googleuser9)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2020, 1:09am UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/empty-folder-size-value-should-be-set-to-zero/15401/4 "2020-12-17T01:09:53Z")
It was not possible to paste image here so I couldn’t show you the error. But here’s the image: ![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/uploads/powershell/original/2X/6/656fab84eacfa5122c862adad9882082f7fc0a0b.png) ---
**Author:** ![david-schmidtberger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ba9def/32.png) [@david-schmidtberger](https://forums.powershell.org/u/david-schmidtberger)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2020, 5:20am UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/empty-folder-size-value-should-be-set-to-zero/15401/5 "2020-12-17T05:20:25Z")
just playing around, what you’re running into is gci is returning nothing when the folder is empty, thus there is nothing in the pipeline for the measure cmdlet to act upon. get-childitem p|get-member you’ll see “nothing” is returned, so you will need to handle the empty folders with a logical check as shown. when there are items in your directory you will see all the data return get-childitem c:\temp|get-member otherwise, if you feel it should work differently, you need to submit a bug on the repo. ---
**Author:** ![googleuser9](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.powershell.org/googleuser9/32/28_2.png) [@googleuser9](https://forums.powershell.org/u/googleuser9)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2020, 9:33pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/empty-folder-size-value-should-be-set-to-zero/15401/6 "2020-12-17T21:33:05Z")
[quote quote=280503]just playing around, … [/quote] Well, you have not been playing enough… because… [quote quote=280503]just playing around, what you’re running into is gci is returning nothing when the folder is empty, thus there is nothing in the pipeline for the measure cmdlet to act upon. get-childitem p|get-member [/quote] That’s not true. The pipeline has an object, but the object has no property called length.   > [@](#): > > you’ll see “nothing” is returned, so you will need to handle the empty folders with a logical check as shown. > > when there are items in your directory you will see all the data return > > get-childitem c:\temp|get-member > > otherwise, if you feel it should work differently, you need to submit a bug on the repo. I have replied this point already to AdminOfThings45. There’s no point in repeating it. > \

I knew I could make a larger code to cope with this empty folder situation, but that makes the code very **cumbersome**. The advantage of using PowerShell is that we could use very compact code to do a lot of works. If we are forced to use cumbersome, better call the language InfirmityShell rather than PowerShell\ ---

**Author:** ![ralphmwr](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.powershell.org/ralphmwr/32/1064_2.png) [@ralphmwr](https://forums.powershell.org/u/ralphmwr)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2020, 4:27am UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/empty-folder-size-value-should-be-set-to-zero/15401/7 "2020-12-18T04:27:00Z")
Let me see if I can help. It looks like you have the following structure: C:\temp\p\p and this directory has nothing in it. Does this look correct? ``` PS C:\Users\micha\testfolder> gci p Directory: C:\Users\micha\testfolder\p Mode LastWriteTime Length Name ---- ------------- ------ ---- d----- 12/18/2020 8:44 AM p PS C:\Users\micha\testfolder> gci .\p\p PS C:\Users\micha\testfolder> ``` Assuming my test environment matches yours, I think I might understand the issue. When you run Get-ChildItem against a directory the default view (text returned to the screen) includes a column heading called “Length” but that property only applies to files and NOT directories, so if the directory you run Get-Childitem against only has directories and no files, that column heading will still be present but no values. To illustrate this I put a simple text file in the .\p directory. ``` PS C:\Users\micha\testfolder> gci p Directory: C:\Users\micha\testfolder\p Mode LastWriteTime Length Name ---- ------------- ------ ---- d----- 12/18/2020 8:44 AM p -a---- 12/18/2020 8:46 AM 5 Foo.txt ``` To further illustrate I’ll pipe the results to Get-Member. Notice there are two object types displayed in this result System.IO.FileInfo and System.IO.DirectoryInfo. The FileInfo object has a length property but the DirectoryInfo object does not. ``` PS C:\Users\micha\testfolder> gci p | Get-Member TypeName: System.IO.DirectoryInfo Name MemberType Definition ---- ---------- ---------- LinkType CodeProperty System.String LinkType{get=GetLinkType;} Mode CodeProperty System.String Mode{get=Mode;} Target CodeProperty System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable`1[[System.String, mscorlib, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutr... Create Method void Create(), void Create(System.Security.AccessControl.DirectorySecurity directorySecurity) CreateObjRef Method System.Runtime.Remoting.ObjRef CreateObjRef(type requestedType) CreateSubdirectory Method System.IO.DirectoryInfo CreateSubdirectory(string path), System.IO.DirectoryInfo CreateSubdirecto... Delete Method void Delete(), void Delete(bool recursive) EnumerateDirectories Method System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable[System.IO.DirectoryInfo] EnumerateDirectories(), System.Co... EnumerateFiles Method System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable[System.IO.FileInfo] EnumerateFiles(), System.Collections.G... EnumerateFileSystemInfos Method System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable[System.IO.FileSystemInfo] EnumerateFileSystemInfos(), Syst... Equals Method bool Equals(System.Object obj) GetAccessControl Method System.Security.AccessControl.DirectorySecurity GetAccessControl(), System.Security.AccessControl... GetDirectories Method System.IO.DirectoryInfo[] GetDirectories(), System.IO.DirectoryInfo[] GetDirectories(string searc... GetFiles Method System.IO.FileInfo[] GetFiles(string searchPattern), System.IO.FileInfo[] GetFiles(string searchP... GetFileSystemInfos Method System.IO.FileSystemInfo[] GetFileSystemInfos(string searchPattern), System.IO.FileSystemInfo[] G... GetHashCode Method int GetHashCode() GetLifetimeService Method System.Object GetLifetimeService() GetObjectData Method void GetObjectData(System.Runtime.Serialization.SerializationInfo info, System.Runtime.Serializat... GetType Method type GetType() InitializeLifetimeService Method System.Object InitializeLifetimeService() MoveTo Method void MoveTo(string destDirName) Refresh Method void Refresh() SetAccessControl Method void SetAccessControl(System.Security.AccessControl.DirectorySecurity directorySecurity) ToString Method string ToString() PSChildName NoteProperty string PSChildName=p PSDrive NoteProperty PSDriveInfo PSDrive=C PSIsContainer NoteProperty bool PSIsContainer=True PSParentPath NoteProperty string PSParentPath=Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Users\micha\testfolder\p PSPath NoteProperty string PSPath=Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Users\micha\testfolder\p\p PSProvider NoteProperty ProviderInfo PSProvider=Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem Attributes Property System.IO.FileAttributes Attributes {get;set;} CreationTime Property datetime CreationTime {get;set;} CreationTimeUtc Property datetime CreationTimeUtc {get;set;} Exists Property bool Exists {get;} Extension Property string Extension {get;} FullName Property string FullName {get;} LastAccessTime Property datetime LastAccessTime {get;set;} LastAccessTimeUtc Property datetime LastAccessTimeUtc {get;set;} LastWriteTime Property datetime LastWriteTime {get;set;} LastWriteTimeUtc Property datetime LastWriteTimeUtc {get;set;} Name Property string Name {get;} Parent Property System.IO.DirectoryInfo Parent {get;} Root Property System.IO.DirectoryInfo Root {get;} BaseName ScriptProperty System.Object BaseName {get=$this.Name;} TypeName: System.IO.FileInfo Name MemberType Definition ---- ---------- ---------- LinkType CodeProperty System.String LinkType{get=GetLinkType;} Mode CodeProperty System.String Mode{get=Mode;} Target CodeProperty System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable`1[[System.String, mscorlib, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutr... AppendText Method System.IO.StreamWriter AppendText() CopyTo Method System.IO.FileInfo CopyTo(string destFileName), System.IO.FileInfo CopyTo(string destFileName, bo... Create Method System.IO.FileStream Create() CreateObjRef Method System.Runtime.Remoting.ObjRef CreateObjRef(type requestedType) CreateText Method System.IO.StreamWriter CreateText() Decrypt Method void Decrypt() Delete Method void Delete() Encrypt Method void Encrypt() Equals Method bool Equals(System.Object obj) GetAccessControl Method System.Security.AccessControl.FileSecurity GetAccessControl(), System.Security.AccessControl.File... GetHashCode Method int GetHashCode() GetLifetimeService Method System.Object GetLifetimeService() GetObjectData Method void GetObjectData(System.Runtime.Serialization.SerializationInfo info, System.Runtime.Serializat... GetType Method type GetType() InitializeLifetimeService Method System.Object InitializeLifetimeService() MoveTo Method void MoveTo(string destFileName) Open Method System.IO.FileStream Open(System.IO.FileMode mode), System.IO.FileStream Open(System.IO.FileMode ... OpenRead Method System.IO.FileStream OpenRead() OpenText Method System.IO.StreamReader OpenText() OpenWrite Method System.IO.FileStream OpenWrite() Refresh Method void Refresh() Replace Method System.IO.FileInfo Replace(string destinationFileName, string destinationBackupFileName), System.... SetAccessControl Method void SetAccessControl(System.Security.AccessControl.FileSecurity fileSecurity) ToString Method string ToString() PSChildName NoteProperty string PSChildName=Foo.txt PSDrive NoteProperty PSDriveInfo PSDrive=C PSIsContainer NoteProperty bool PSIsContainer=False PSParentPath NoteProperty string PSParentPath=Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Users\micha\testfolder\p PSPath NoteProperty string PSPath=Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Users\micha\testfolder\p\Foo.txt PSProvider NoteProperty ProviderInfo PSProvider=Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem Attributes Property System.IO.FileAttributes Attributes {get;set;} CreationTime Property datetime CreationTime {get;set;} CreationTimeUtc Property datetime CreationTimeUtc {get;set;} Directory Property System.IO.DirectoryInfo Directory {get;} DirectoryName Property string DirectoryName {get;} Exists Property bool Exists {get;} Extension Property string Extension {get;} FullName Property string FullName {get;} IsReadOnly Property bool IsReadOnly {get;set;} LastAccessTime Property datetime LastAccessTime {get;set;} LastAccessTimeUtc Property datetime LastAccessTimeUtc {get;set;} LastWriteTime Property datetime LastWriteTime {get;set;} LastWriteTimeUtc Property datetime LastWriteTimeUtc {get;set;} Length Property long Length {get;} Name Property string Name {get;} BaseName ScriptProperty System.Object BaseName {get=if ($this.Extension.Length -gt 0){$this.Name.Remove($this.Name.Length... VersionInfo ScriptProperty System.Object VersionInfo {get=[System.Diagnostics.FileVersionInfo]::GetVersionInfo($this.FullNam... ``` Note length is the size of the file. If you’d like to view the sum of size of the files contained in a directory, I can help with that, but windows does not calculate a size (length) for a directory. This is a Windows thing NOT a PowerShell thing. [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.io.fileinfo.length?view=net-5.0](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.io.fileinfo.length?view=net-5.0) ---
**Author:** ![dotnVo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@dotnVo](https://forums.powershell.org/u/dotnVo)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2024, 8:28pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/empty-folder-size-value-should-be-set-to-zero/15401/8 "2024-05-16T20:28:08Z")