How to display or process variable output

PowerShell Help
1

Hi - new to PS.

code:

$serialnum = get-ciminstance win32_bios | select serialnumber
write-host $serialnum

Output is: @{serialnumber=MGG18960XY7}

Questions:

  1. How do I change output to just get the number portion - MGG18960XY7
  2. Would you please explain why the output is happening like it is.
Thanks.

 

2

simple.

The output you get is an object, you can see the type by executing below expression.

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_Bios | Get-Member

Srialnumber is property and MGG18960XY7 is the value of that property. If need only the property, you need to either save it to a variable and checrry pick or expand the property to get only the value.

$Bios = Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_Bios
Write-Host $Bios.SerialNumber

#Or

$Serialnumber = Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_Bios | Select-Object -ExpandProperty SerialNumber
Write-host $Serialnumber

the reason why you got that output is because of string expansion. Write host does a string expansion.

$serialnum = Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_Bios | Select-Object -Property serialnumber
"$Serialnum"
3

I believe and correct me if I’m wrong is you wrapped the Ciminstance into a variable to then call it, to get your answer.

First, you could have just ran the command:

get-ciminstance win32_bios | select serialnumber

But if you are placing it into a variable to call it later then this would have worked as well

$serialnum = get-ciminstance win32_bios | select serialnumber

$serialnum

 

4

It’s an PSCustomObject with a property. To make $serialnum just a string:

$serialnum = get-ciminstance win32_bios | select -expand serialnumber
write-host $serialnum

ABC1234
5
  1. How to get the serial number alone: Use the -ExpandProperty along with the Select-object
$serialnum = get-ciminstance win32_bios | select serialnumber -ExpandProperty serialnumber
write-host $serialnum
2. get-ciminstance win32_bios | select -expand serialnumber is having several properties, hence it is showing as @{}. To see the difference use get-member 
get-ciminstance win32_bios | select serialnumber -ExpandProperty serialnumber | gm

TypeName: System.String

get-ciminstance win32_bios | select serialnumber

serialnumber 
------------ 
2289-0334-4018-3657-1028-9433-96
get-ciminstance win32_bios | select serialnumber | gm


TypeName: Selected.Microsoft.Management.Infrastructure.CimInstance