Get type definition in Powershell
Today I went back to some Powershell scripting with the Az module and it frustrated me that I wasn’t easily able to know what properties Get-AzADGroup (or any of the other Az cmdlets) returned to me without actually invoking the cmdlet. E.g I dont want to invoke New-AzADGroup just to be able to see what properties it will give me so I can use that in my script. Previously I’ve relied on IntelliSens in my editor, but it often fails, so I sought out to find a more manual solution (who would have thought..).
Some modules provide information in their help about what type a particular cmdlet returns. We can use this to get information about what that type contains.
If we look at the Get-AzADGroup cmdlet as an example. When we run Get-Help Get-AzADGroup -Full we can see under the “OUTPUT” section that it returns a Microsoft.Azure.Commands.ActiveDirectory.PSADGroup type. To inspect that type we can do the following.
PS > Get-Help Get-AzADGroup -Full
...
OUTPUTS
Microsoft.Azure.Commands.ActiveDirectory.PSADGroup
...
PS > [Microsoft.Azure.Commands.ActiveDirectory.PSADGroup]::new() | gm
TypeName: Microsoft.Azure.Commands.ActiveDirectory.PSADGroup
Name MemberType Definition
---- ---------- ----------
Equals Method bool Equals(System.Object obj)
GetHashCode Method int GetHashCode()
GetType Method type GetType()
ToString Method string ToString()
AdditionalProperties Property System.Collections.Generic.IDictionary[string,System.Object] AdditionalProperties {get;set;}
DeletionTimestamp Property System.Nullable[datetime] DeletionTimestamp {get;set;}
Description Property string Description {get;set;}
DisplayName Property string DisplayName {get;set;}
Id Property string Id {get;set;}
MailEnabled Property System.Nullable[bool] MailEnabled {get;set;}
MailNickname Property string MailNickname {get;set;}
ObjectType Property string ObjectType {get;}
SecurityEnabled Property System.Nullable[bool] SecurityEnabled {get;set;}
Type Property string Type {get;set;}
Here we can see what methods and properties we will get if we run Get-AzADGroup.
Another solution is to call either the GetMembers(), GetProperties() or GetMethods() on the type which will give you detailed information about each member. It’s a little verbose to be frank.. So I prefer the first method.
PS > [Microsoft.Azure.Commands.ActiveDirectory.PSADGroup].GetProperties()
MemberType : Property
Name : SecurityEnabled
DeclaringType : Microsoft.Azure.Commands.ActiveDirectory.PSADGroup
ReflectedType : Microsoft.Azure.Commands.ActiveDirectory.PSADGroup
MetadataToken : 385876641
Module : Microsoft.Azure.PowerShell.Cmdlets.Resources.dll
IsCollectible : False
PropertyType : System.Nullable`1[System.Boolean]
Attributes : None
CanRead : True
CanWrite : True
IsSpecialName : False
GetMethod : System.Nullable`1[System.Boolean] get_SecurityEnabled()
SetMethod : Void set_SecurityEnabled(System.Nullable`1[System.Boolean])
CustomAttributes : {}
MemberType : Property
Name : MailEnabled
DeclaringType : Microsoft.Azure.Commands.ActiveDirectory.PSADGroup
ReflectedType : Microsoft.Azure.Commands.ActiveDirectory.PSADGroup
MetadataToken : 385876642
Module : Microsoft.Azure.PowerShell.Cmdlets.Resources.dll
IsCollectible : False
PropertyType : System.Nullable`1[System.Boolean]
Attributes : None
CanRead : True
CanWrite : True
IsSpecialName : False
GetMethod : System.Nullable`1[System.Boolean] get_MailEnabled()
SetMethod : Void set_MailEnabled(System.Nullable`1[System.Boolean])
CustomAttributes : {}
MemberType : Property
Name : MailNickname
DeclaringType : Microsoft.Azure.Commands.ActiveDirectory.PSADGroup
ReflectedType : Microsoft.Azure.Commands.ActiveDirectory.PSADGroup
MetadataToken : 385876643
Module : Microsoft.Azure.PowerShell.Cmdlets.Resources.dll
IsCollectible : False
PropertyType : System.String
Attributes : None
CanRead : True
CanWrite : True
IsSpecialName : False
GetMethod : System.String get_MailNickname()
SetMethod : Void set_MailNickname(System.String)
CustomAttributes : {}
MemberType : Property
Name : ObjectType
DeclaringType : Microsoft.Azure.Commands.ActiveDirectory.PSADGroup
ReflectedType : Microsoft.Azure.Commands.ActiveDirectory.PSADGroup
MetadataToken : 385876644
Module : Microsoft.Azure.PowerShell.Cmdlets.Resources.dll
IsCollectible : False
PropertyType : System.String
Attributes : None
CanRead : True
CanWrite : False
IsSpecialName : False
GetMethod : System.String get_ObjectType()
SetMethod :
CustomAttributes : {}
MemberType : Property
Name : Description
DeclaringType : Microsoft.Azure.Commands.ActiveDirectory.PSADGroup
ReflectedType : Microsoft.Azure.Commands.ActiveDirectory.PSADGroup
MetadataToken : 385876645
Module : Microsoft.Azure.PowerShell.Cmdlets.Resources.dll
IsCollectible : False
PropertyType : System.String
Attributes : None
CanRead : True
CanWrite : True
IsSpecialName : False
GetMethod : System.String get_Description()
SetMethod : Void set_Description(System.String)
CustomAttributes : {}
MemberType : Property
Name : DisplayName
DeclaringType : Microsoft.Azure.Commands.ActiveDirectory.PSADObject
ReflectedType : Microsoft.Azure.Commands.ActiveDirectory.PSADGroup
MetadataToken : 385876650
Module : Microsoft.Azure.PowerShell.Cmdlets.Resources.dll
IsCollectible : False
PropertyType : System.String
Attributes : None
CanRead : True
CanWrite : True
IsSpecialName : False
GetMethod : System.String get_DisplayName()
SetMethod : Void set_DisplayName(System.String)
CustomAttributes : {}
MemberType : Property
Name : Id
DeclaringType : Microsoft.Azure.Commands.ActiveDirectory.PSADObject
ReflectedType : Microsoft.Azure.Commands.ActiveDirectory.PSADGroup
MetadataToken : 385876651
Module : Microsoft.Azure.PowerShell.Cmdlets.Resources.dll
IsCollectible : False
PropertyType : System.String
Attributes : None
CanRead : True
CanWrite : True
IsSpecialName : False
GetMethod : System.String get_Id()
SetMethod : Void set_Id(System.String)
CustomAttributes : {}
MemberType : Property
Name : Type
DeclaringType : Microsoft.Azure.Commands.ActiveDirectory.PSADObject
ReflectedType : Microsoft.Azure.Commands.ActiveDirectory.PSADGroup
MetadataToken : 385876652
Module : Microsoft.Azure.PowerShell.Cmdlets.Resources.dll
IsCollectible : False
PropertyType : System.String
Attributes : None
CanRead : True
CanWrite : True
IsSpecialName : False
GetMethod : System.String get_Type()
SetMethod : Void set_Type(System.String)
CustomAttributes : {}
MemberType : Property
Name : DeletionTimestamp
DeclaringType : Microsoft.Azure.Commands.ActiveDirectory.PSADObject
ReflectedType : Microsoft.Azure.Commands.ActiveDirectory.PSADGroup
MetadataToken : 385876653
Module : Microsoft.Azure.PowerShell.Cmdlets.Resources.dll
IsCollectible : False
PropertyType : System.Nullable`1[System.DateTime]
Attributes : None
CanRead : True
CanWrite : True
IsSpecialName : False
GetMethod : System.Nullable`1[System.DateTime] get_DeletionTimestamp()
SetMethod : Void set_DeletionTimestamp(System.Nullable`1[System.DateTime])
CustomAttributes : {}
MemberType : Property
Name : AdditionalProperties
DeclaringType : Microsoft.Azure.Commands.ActiveDirectory.PSADObject
ReflectedType : Microsoft.Azure.Commands.ActiveDirectory.PSADGroup
MetadataToken : 385876654
Module : Microsoft.Azure.PowerShell.Cmdlets.Resources.dll
IsCollectible : False
PropertyType : System.Collections.Generic.IDictionary`2[System.String,System.Object]
Attributes : None
CanRead : True
CanWrite : True
IsSpecialName : False
GetMethod : System.Collections.Generic.IDictionary`2[System.String,System.Object] get_AdditionalProperties()
SetMethod : Void set_AdditionalProperties(System.Collections.Generic.IDictionary`2[System.String,System.Object])
CustomAttributes : {}