Compare Objects

Overview

TIP

Use diff or compare alias for Compare-Object

Compare-Object is a cmdlet to compare two sources of objects and returns a indicator implying the difference between the two.

-ReferenceObject is the base object to compare, -DifferenceObject is the right hand side.

Compare-Object -ReferenceObject @('abc', 'dfg', 4) -DifferenceObject @('fg', 'abc', 1)

InputObject SideIndicator
----------- -------------
fg          =>
1           =>
dfg         <=
4           <=

• <= implies the difference content came from the -ReferenceObject
• => implies the difference content came from the -DifferenceObject
• == implies the content appeared in both sides.

NOTE

Compare-Object hides == case by default. Use -IncludeEqual to display it. And -ExcludeDifferent to to hide different cases.

diff -ref @('abc', 'dfg', 4) -diff @('fg', 'abc', 1) -IncludeEqual

Compare by Property

You can specify which property to compare.

diff @('abc', 'dfg') @('fg', 'abc') -Property Length # compare on string.Length

Comparison Solution

Compare-Object will try finding a method to do the comparison, falls back as following:

• IComparable interface
• ToString() and compare on string

TIP

If the object to be compared doesn't implement IComparable, you should use -Property unless it's a primitive type.