Using the PowerShell ForEach Loop

In this blog post, we’ll explore using the PowerShell ForEach loop and how it can be used to process and manipulate data efficiently.

Understanding the For-Each Loop

The ForEach loop in PowerShell allows us to iterate over collections of objects, such as arrays, lists, or any other data structure that holds multiple elements. It provides a way to perform a specific set of actions for each item in the collection, making it a fundamental tool for tasks like data processing, automation, and reporting.

Here’s the basic structure of a ForEach loop in PowerShell:

foreach ($item in $collection) {
#do something with $item
}

Examples Using PowerShell and ForEach

Let’s assume we have a basket of fruit, and we store each piece of fruit in an array of strings. We can then iterate through each fruit like so:

$fruits = @("apple", "banana", "cherry", "peach")
foreach ($fruit in $fruits) {
write-host $fruit
}

In the real-world we might want to loop through files in a directory. In this example we can retrieve all files in a directory using Get-ChildItem , and then use a ForEach loop to iterate through the list and write the file path to the console:

$files = Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Alkane\Files
foreach ($file in $files) { 
write-host $file.FullName
}

Mastering the ForEach loop in PowerShell is a crucial skill for anyone looking to automate tasks, process data, or manage resources efficiently.