Advancing Your Functions

I hope you've been enjoying this series of articles looking at how to build a PowerShell function. If you are a PowerShell beginner and can write a function similar to what I shared in the last article, you should feel good and recognize that you understand how to script PowerShell and that you are ready for the next step. That step is creating a PowerShell function that behaves like a compiled C# cmdlet.

Early on, Microsoft recognized the need for IT Pros to build automation tools. Yet Microsoft didn't want to require a background in .NET development. I think one of the best decisions they made was to provide an easy-to-learn and use scripting language. With training and experience, IT Pros can create cmdlet-level commands using PowerShell's scripting language.

When first introduced back in version 2.0, these commands were referred to as scriptlets. Thankfully, that name never caught on. We refer to them simply as functions.

In this article, I need to show you how to take your basic function to the next level, which means accepting pipeline input.