{"id":7471,"date":"2015-03-05T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2015-03-05T00:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.technet.microsoft.com\/heyscriptingguy\/2015\/03\/05\/dont-write-scripts-use-snippets\/"},"modified":"2019-02-18T10:30:24","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T17:30:24","slug":"dont-write-scripts-use-snippets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/dont-write-scripts-use-snippets\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Write Scripts: Use Snippets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary<\/b>: Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, talks about using Windows PowerShell snippets to avoid scripting demands.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Hey, Hey, Scripting Guy! One of the things that I find myself having to do from time-to-time is write scripts. I really don’t like to write scripts, but sometimes I cannot find what I need to, and I cannot avoid it. I really wish that when I do have to write a script, I could make it as painless as possible. Is painless possible?<\/p>\n

—RA<\/p>\n

\"Hey, Hello RA,<\/p>\n

Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, is here. Well tonight is the Charlotte PowerShell Users Group<\/a> meeting. We will be having a guest presentation by Microsoft PFE, Jason Walker. Jason is a really cool dude, and he has written quite a few guest Hey, Scripting Guy! Blog posts<\/a> (in fact, he is an Honorary Scripting Guy). So, the meeting tonight will be awesome. The Scripting Wife and I have been looking forward to it for a while.<\/p>\n

RA, something else that is awesome is using Windows PowerShell ISE snippets to reduce the amount of scripting involved in creating a custom solution.<\/p>\n

When I open the Windows PowerShell ISE, the first thing I need to do is start the snippets. To do this, I can type <CTRL +J>, or simply select Start Snippets<\/b> from the Edit<\/b> menu:<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a><\/p>\n

The snippet drop-down list appears and it shows me what snippets are available. The list is shown here:<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a><\/p>\n

If I hover my mouse over the snippet for a few seconds, the actual code that comprises the snippet appears. This will appear on the left if it is a long piece of code, such as the complete advanced function. It will appear on the right if it is relatively short, such as the comment block. Here is the comment-block snippet:<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a><\/p>\n

If I want to insert the code snippet into my script, I highlight the snippet from the drop-down list, and press ENTER. The current insertion point in the script governs where the code snippet will appear. This means that I need to place my mouse cursor exactly where I want the snippet to appear in my script. So the following comment block appears at the beginning of my script because that is where my cursor is:<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a><\/p>\n

The cool thing about this snippet is that it moved my insertion point to the place where I would more than likely actually type. Of course, the fact that I have a comment in the middle of a comment block is a bit strange—but hey, it works, and it helps me avoid typing.<\/p>\n

Now I decide to add a For<\/b> loop. I move my insertion point after my comment block, and start the snippets again (I like to use <CTRL + J> because it keeps my hands on the keyboard). I select For<\/b> from the drop-down list. The description tells me it is a For<\/b> loop. I press ENTER, and voila! The For<\/b> loop appears in my code.<\/p>\n

The strange thing is that I am left on the For<\/b> line, not in the code block. But I guess that makes sense because most of the time I am not going to loop 99 times. I add the output for $i<\/b> into the script block, and I press the green triangle (or <F5>) to run my script. The output is shown here:<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a><\/p>\n

I place my insertion point after the $i<\/b> that I added to the script, start the snippets again, and add an If <\/b>statement to my script. I have to change the $x<\/b> variable to $i<\/b>, and set a condition that $i<\/b> is equal to 5. I then add code in the script block so that the script will break when the $i<\/b> condition matches. I then run the script again. The script and the output are shown here:<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a><\/p>\n

So I did very little typing, and in less than a minute, I had a script “that does something.” Windows PowerShell code snippets offer two advantages:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. They help if one cannot remember exact syntax. In this way, they often provide enough so that one can quickly get the code written without having to look up everything.<\/li>\n
  2. They help an experienced scripter avoid a lot of typing. In this way, the snippets help save time.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    RA, that is all there is to using Windows PowerShell ISE snippets. Script Without Scripting Week will continue tomorrow when I will talk about creating snippets.<\/p>\n

    I invite you to follow me on Twitter<\/a> and Facebook<\/a>. If you have any questions, send email to me at scripter@microsoft.com<\/a>, or post your questions on the Official Scripting Guys Forum<\/a>. See you tomorrow. Until then, peace.<\/p>\n

    Ed Wilson, Microsoft Scripting Guy<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Summary: Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, talks about using Windows PowerShell snippets to avoid scripting demands.  Hey, Scripting Guy! One of the things that I find myself having to do from time-to-time is write scripts. I really don’t like to write scripts, but sometimes I cannot find what I need to, and I cannot avoid […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":596,"featured_media":87096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[553,3,4,45],"class_list":["post-7471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scripting","tag-ise","tag-scripting-guy","tag-scripting-techniques","tag-windows-powershell"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":"

    Summary: Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, talks about using Windows PowerShell snippets to avoid scripting demands.  Hey, Scripting Guy! One of the things that I find myself having to do from time-to-time is write scripts. I really don’t like to write scripts, but sometimes I cannot find what I need to, and I cannot avoid […]<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/596"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}