(PowerShell Studio) Set specific column width for Out-String

Question

I wanted to set specific column size. Below is the image-

Here I have set the width to be 150 & the command is-

Get-WinEvent -FilterHashtable @{ LogName = "application"; StartTime = "10/30/2014 12:00:01 AM"; EndTime = "10/30/2014 11:59:59 PM" } | Select providername, timecreated, id, leveldisplayname, message | Format-Table | Out-String -Width 150

As you can see the Messages are getting trimmed and TimeCreated column has lot of extra width. How can I set custom width for each column so that I can reduce the size for TimeCreated column and increase it for Message column.

Answer 1

Use the -wrap parameter of Format-Table to disable trimming like so:

Get-WinEvent -FilterHashtable @{ LogName = "application"; StartTime = "10/30/2014 12:00:01 AM"; EndTime = "10/30/2014 11:59:59 PM" } | Select providername, timecreated, id, leveldisplayname, message | Format-Table -Wrap | Out-String -Width 120

to remove unneeded column spacing use the -Autosize parameter. Note that using -Autosize without -wrap will still shorten the last selected field if it's content is too long.

More info on Output Formatting using Format-Table:

Technet