What is Compare-Object cmdlet do?
The Compare-Object cmdlet compares two sets of objects. One set of objects is the “reference set,” and the other set is the “difference set”. The below format will be out of the comparison.
| <= | This indicates that property value appears only in the -ReferenceObject set. |
| => | Indicates that property value appears only in the -differenceObject. |
| == | Indicates that both property value appears the same. |
Example:
In the Compare-Object cmdlet, there are two required parameters -referenceObject and -differenceObject. For example, -referenceObject controls the master content, the file which holds all the information, while -differenceObject has the secondary file.
Demo
Let we create two files, the first (Master & Child list) is for reference and the second for comparison. Now we are ready to execute this Compare-Object script.
MasterList.txt
WaterMelon
Grapes
Mango
Oranges
Bananas
Cucumber
Guva
ChildList.txt
Mango
Apple
Oranges
Bananas
Cucumber
WaterMelon
Grapes
Example 1: To Compare Two Files, and List Their Differences
This command compares the contents of two text files. Here Apple is present in the second file (-differenceObject set) not in the first file (-ReferenceObject set) so the output will be => and Guva is present in the first file and not in the second file, so the output will be <=.
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Clear-Host $strReference = Get-Content "D:\BLOG\Power Shell\Examples\Masterlist.txt" $strDifference = Get-Content "D:\BLOG\Power Shell\Examples\ChildList.txt" Compare-Object $strReference $strDifference |
Example 2: To Compare Two Files, with -Parameters
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Clear-Host $strReference = Get-Content "D:\BLOG\Power Shell\Examples\Masterlist.txt" $strDifference = Get-Content "D:\BLOG\Power Shell\Examples\ChildList.txt" Compare-Object $strReference $strDifference -IncludeEqual Optional Parameters |
Optional Parameters
| -CaseSensitive | This indicates that comparisons should be case-sensitive. |
| -Culture | Specifies the culture to use for comparisons. |
| -Property | Specifies an array of properties of the reference and difference objects to compare. |
| -ExcludeDifferent | Indicates that this cmdlet displays only the characteristics of compared objects that are equal |
| -SyncWindow | Specifies the number of adjacent objects that this cmdlet inspects while looking for a match in a collection of objects. |
| -IncludeEqual | Indicates that this cmdlet displays characteristics of compared objects that are equal. By default, only characteristics that differ between the reference and different objects are displayed. |
| -PassThru | Returns an object representing the item with which you are working. By default, this cmdlet does not generate any output. |
What do you think?
I hope you have got an idea about how to use PowerShell Compare-Object cmdlet. I would like to have feedback from the readers of my post. Your valuable feedback, question, or comments about this article are always welcome.
Hi, I want powershell command to compare the contents from Image file with text file and export the mismatch contents in the excel. Can anyone help me out from this