$t format/contents different from $g

PowerShell Help
1

Is $t special? Why is $t output format different from $g?

$t and $g are both of type system.string…

PS C:\users\name\downloads> $t = psping localhost
PS C:\users\name\downloads> $t
PsPing v2.10 - PsPing - ping, latency, bandwidth measurement utility Copyright (C) 2012-2016 Mark Russinovich Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com Pinging ::1 with 32 bytes of data: 5 iterations (warmup 1) ping test: Reply from ::1: 0.59ms Reply from ::1: 1.83ms Reply from ::1: 1.51ms Reply from ::1: 1.55ms Reply from ::1: 1.73ms Ping statistics for ::1: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss), Minimum = 1.51ms, Maximum = 1.83ms, Average = 1.65ms

PS C:\users\name\downloads> $g = psping localhost
PS C:\users\name\downloads> $g

Pinging xxxxxxxxxxx [::1] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from ::1: time<1ms
Reply from ::1: time<1ms
Reply from ::1: time<1ms
Reply from ::1: time<1ms

Ping statistics for ::1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

2

I cannot reproduce the behaviour you’re describing. Did you try to restart your console session?

3

Are $t and $g the same type?

PS C:\users\me> $t.gettype()                                                  

IsPublic IsSerial Name                                     BaseType
-------- -------- ----                                     --------
True     True     String                                   System.Object

PS C:\users\me> $g.gettype()                                                  

IsPublic IsSerial Name                                     BaseType
-------- -------- ----                                     --------
True     True     Object[]                                 System.Array

I can get your result if I cast $t to a string instead of a string array or object array:

PS C:\users\me> [string]$t = psping localhost

PS C:\users\me> $t

PsPing v2.10 - PsPing - ping, latency, bandwidth measurement utility Copyright (C) 20
12-2016 Mark Russinovich Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com  Pinging ::1 with 32 byte
s of data: 5 iterations (warmup 1) ping test:  Reply from ::1: 19.51ms Reply from ::1:
 0.57ms Reply from ::1: 0.58ms Reply from ::1: 0.59ms Reply from ::1: 0.60ms  Ping sta
tistics for ::1:   Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),   Minimum = 0.57ms, Max
imum = 0.60ms, Average = 0.58ms

It’s happened to me too. You might think that the variable forgets its type when you use it for something else, but it doesn’t.

4

ditto to what Olaf and js is stating. doing the following in the consolehost/ISE/VSCode all return the same results.

($t = D:\Tools\psping -accepteula localhost)
([string]$t = D:\Tools\psping -accepteula localhost)


PsPing v2.10 - PsPing - ping, latency, bandwidth measurement utility
Copyright (C) 2012-2016 Mark Russinovich
Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com

Pinging ::1 with 32 bytes of data:
5 iterations (warmup 1) ping test:
Reply from ::1: 0.83ms
Reply from ::1: 0.54ms
Reply from ::1: 1.26ms
Reply from ::1: 0.60ms
Reply from ::1: 1.27ms

Ping statistics for ::1:
  Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
  Minimum = 0.54ms, Maximum = 1.27ms, Average = 0.92ms



PsPing v2.10 - PsPing - ping, latency, bandwidth measurement utility Copyright (C) 2012-2016 Mark Russinovich Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com  Pinging ::1 with 32 bytes of data: 5 iterations (warmup 1) ping test:  Reply from ::1: 1.04ms Reply from ::1: 0.63ms Reply from ::1: 0.69ms Reply from ::1:
1.15ms Reply from ::1: 1.25ms  Ping statistics for ::1:   Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),   Minimum = 0.63ms, Maximum = 1.25ms, Average = 0.93ms


($g = D:\Tools\psping -accepteula localhost)
([string]$g = D:\Tools\psping -accepteula localhost)


PsPing v2.10 - PsPing - ping, latency, bandwidth measurement utility
Copyright (C) 2012-2016 Mark Russinovich
Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com

Pinging ::1 with 32 bytes of data:
5 iterations (warmup 1) ping test:
Reply from ::1: 0.74ms
Reply from ::1: 1.04ms
Reply from ::1: 1.06ms
Reply from ::1: 0.94ms
Reply from ::1: 1.08ms

Ping statistics for ::1:
  Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
  Minimum = 0.94ms, Maximum = 1.08ms, Average = 1.03ms



 PsPing v2.10 - PsPing - ping, latency, bandwidth measurement utility Copyright (C) 2012-2016 Mark Russinovich Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com  Pinging ::1 with 32 bytes of data: 5 iterations (warmup 1) ping test:  Reply from ::1: 0.98ms Reply from ::1: 0.51ms Reply from ::1: 0.65ms Reply from ::1:
1.14ms Reply from ::1: 1.47ms  Ping statistics for ::1:   Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),   Minimum = 0.51ms, Maximum = 1.47ms, Average = 0.94ms

Question: Why are you using both $t and $g?
Just curious.
Also, why psping, vs, just ping or Test-Connection, Test-NetConnection for general liveliness validation?

5

Thanks everyone! I ended up restarting my console and then I got consistent results. I must have strongly typed my $t variable as [string] and not strongly typed $g earlier on in my testing.

I wanted to strongly type $t for my test so that I could then use $t.contains(“0% loss”) as the condition in my connectivity script. I still use test-netconnection, however I think it’s best to build a script with three concurrent successful tests to any port to validate it is open. Another reason I like PSPing utility is that it runs very vast and does not try to resolve DNS. I’ve also found that test-netconnection cmdlet is much slower that PSPing.

PS C:\scripts> [string] $t = psping localhost
PS C:\scripts> [string] $g = psping localhost

PS C:\scripts> $t.gettype()

IsPublic IsSerial Name BaseType

True True String System.Object

PS C:\scripts> $g.gettype()

IsPublic IsSerial Name BaseType

True True String System.Object

PS C:\scripts> $t
PsPing v2.10 - PsPing - ping, latency, bandwidth measurement utility Copyright (C) 2012-2016 Mark Russinovich Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com Pinging ::1 with 32 bytes of data: 5 iterations (warmup 1) ping test: Reply from ::1: 0.63ms Reply from ::1: 0.48ms Reply from ::1: 0.49ms Reply from ::1: 0.51ms Reply from ::1: 0.48ms Ping statistics for ::1: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss), Minimum = 0.48ms, Maximum = 0.51ms, Average = 0.49ms
PS C:\scripts> $g
PsPing v2.10 - PsPing - ping, latency, bandwidth measurement utility Copyright (C) 2012-2016 Mark Russinovich Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com Pinging ::1 with 32 bytes of data: 5 iterations (warmup 1) ping test: Reply from ::1: 0.58ms Reply from ::1: 1.41ms Reply from ::1: 1.31ms Reply from ::1: 1.41ms Reply from ::1: 0.68ms Ping statistics for ::1: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss), Minimum = 0.68ms, Maximum = 1.41ms, Average = 1.20ms
PS C:\scripts>