# What an Object Is: Get-Member Everything PowerShell shows you is an object, a thing that carries named facts called properties, the way a library book's card carries its title, author and due date, and Get-Member lists every fact an object knows. Apprentice · PowerShell · Updated November 10, 2026 ## After this lesson you can - Explain that each row a command shows is an object, and each column one of its properties - List an object's properties with Get-Member, and read its TypeName line ## Key takeaways - An object is one thing, such as a file, with named facts about it. Each fact is a property, such as Name, Length or LastWriteTime. - Each row Get-ChildItem shows is an object, and each column is one of its properties. The table shows only a few of them. - `Get-Member` lists what an object knows. Its TypeName line says what kind of object it is, such as System.IO.FileInfo for a file. - Dates and running programs are objects too, each kind with its own properties. Take a book out of the library, and the library keeps a card for it: the title, the author, the day it's due back. Nobody reads the whole book to find its due date; they look at the card. Your computer keeps a card like that for every file: its name, its size, when it last changed. In File Explorer you see one file's card at a time, with a right-click and **Properties**. In PowerShell you get the card itself, for every file at once, and you can ask it questions. Which vacation photo is the biggest? Which file hasn't changed since the summer? A help-desk tech checking when a settings file changed, or a developer looking for the files edited today, starts with the same card. ## A practice folder of vacation photos This chapter uses the photos from a summer trip, gathered into one folder. These lines make it and leave you inside it. The pretend photos are text files filled with the letter x, so each one has a size, and the sizes differ. Running the lines again is safe: they write the same files again. ```powershell New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path "$HOME\terminal-practice\vacation-photos" | Out-Null Set-Location "$HOME\terminal-practice\vacation-photos" Set-Content -Path sunset.jpg -Value ('x' * 3150) -NoNewline Set-Content -Path sandcastle.jpg -Value ('x' * 2875) -NoNewline Set-Content -Path clock-tower.jpg -Value ('x' * 4210) -NoNewline Set-Content -Path summit.jpg -Value ('x' * 3620) -NoNewline Set-Content -Path falls.jpg -Value ('x' * 5180) -NoNewline Set-Content -Path captions.txt -Value 'sunset.jpg: the pier on day 1', 'clock-tower.jpg: noon in the old town', 'summit.jpg: 3 miles up' ``` They print nothing when they work. `('x' * 3150)` means "the letter x, 3,150 times". ## A file is a thing with facts Now look at the folder: ```powershell Get-ChildItem ``` ```text Directory: C:\Users\Sam\terminal-practice\vacation-photos Mode LastWriteTime Length Name ---- ------------- ------ ---- -a--- 7/18/2026 9:40 PM 94 captions.txt -a--- 7/18/2026 9:40 PM 4210 clock-tower.jpg -a--- 7/18/2026 9:40 PM 5180 falls.jpg -a--- 7/18/2026 9:40 PM 2875 sandcastle.jpg -a--- 7/18/2026 9:40 PM 3620 summit.jpg -a--- 7/18/2026 9:40 PM 3150 sunset.jpg ``` Your dates and times will be the moment you made the files. It looks like lines of text, but it isn't. Each row is a card PowerShell holds for one file, and each column is one fact on that card. That card has a name: an **object**, one thing with named facts about it. Each fact is a **property**: `Name` is a property, `Length` (the size in bytes) is another, and `LastWriteTime` a third. Because they're properties, not text, PowerShell can sort and filter by them without guessing where a column starts. The next chapter does exactly that. ![A library book's card and a file's card side by side: the book's card lists a title, an author and a due date, and the card for sunset.jpg lists its Name, Length and LastWriteTime, so an object is one thing with named facts about it, and each fact is a property](https://fsdtrainingmedia.blob.core.windows.net/public/images/2026/11/9446dedf97984ca59f35c98c317acac1.webp) The table shows four properties. A file knows far more than four things. ## What does it know? Get-Member `Get-Item` gets one item by its name, where `Get-ChildItem` gets everything inside a folder. To see the whole card, hand that item to `Get-Member` with `|`, read "pipe". The pipe passes whatever is on its left to the command on its right; *The Pipeline: |*, in the next chapter, shows all it can do. ```powershell Get-Item sunset.jpg | Get-Member -MemberType Property ``` ```text TypeName: System.IO.FileInfo Name MemberType Definition ---- ---------- ---------- Attributes Property System.IO.FileAttributes Attributes {get;set;} CreationTime Property datetime CreationTime {get;set;} CreationTimeUtc Property datetime CreationTimeUtc {get;set;} Directory Property System.IO.DirectoryInfo Directory {get;} DirectoryName Property string DirectoryName {get;} Exists Property bool Exists {get;} Extension Property string Extension {get;} FullName Property string FullName {get;} IsReadOnly Property bool IsReadOnly {get;set;} LastAccessTime Property datetime LastAccessTime {get;set;} LastAccessTimeUtc Property datetime LastAccessTimeUtc {get;set;} LastWriteTime Property datetime LastWriteTime {get;set;} LastWriteTimeUtc Property datetime LastWriteTimeUtc {get;set;} Length Property long Length {get;} LinkTarget Property string LinkTarget {get;} Name Property string Name {get;} UnixFileMode Property System.IO.UnixFileMode UnixFileMode {get;set;} ``` Read it from the top: - **TypeName** is the kind of object. `System.IO.FileInfo` (read "file info") is the kind every file is, so every file's card has these same properties, with its own values. - **Name** is each property's name: `Extension`, `FullName` (the whole path), `CreationTime`. - **Definition** starts with what kind of value the property holds: `datetime` is a date and time, `string` is text, `long` a whole number, `bool` a True or False. `{get;}` means you can read it; `{get;set;}` means you can change it too. `-MemberType Property` keeps the list to properties. Without it, `Get-Member` lists 53 rows, among them a few properties PowerShell adds itself, such as `Mode` and `BaseName` (the name without its extension), and *methods*, the things a file can do, which *Properties and Methods* explains. `Get-ChildItem | Get-Member` lists the same card once, not six times: `Get-Member` describes each kind of object, not each file. ## Everything is an object Files aren't special. Today's date is an object too, with properties for its year, its month and more. `-Name` picks properties by name, and it takes a wildcard, so `Day*` means "every name that starts with Day": ```powershell Get-Date | Get-Member -Name Day* ``` ```text TypeName: System.DateTime Name MemberType Definition ---- ---------- ---------- Day Property int Day {get;} DayOfWeek Property System.DayOfWeek DayOfWeek {get;} DayOfYear Property int DayOfYear {get;} ``` A date knows its own `DayOfWeek`: no calendar needed. A running program is an object too. `$PID` (read "dollar P I D") holds the Id of the PowerShell window you're typing in, so `Get-Process -Id $PID` gets that one program. A program has more than 50 properties, so this asks only for the ones whose names end in `Time`: ```powershell Get-Process -Id $PID | Get-Member -Name *Time ``` ```text TypeName: System.Diagnostics.Process Name MemberType Definition ---- ---------- ---------- ExitTime Property datetime ExitTime {get;} PrivilegedProcessorTime Property timespan PrivilegedProcessorTime {get;} StartTime Property datetime StartTime {get;} TotalProcessorTime Property timespan TotalProcessorTime {get;} UserProcessorTime Property timespan UserProcessorTime {get;} ``` Every program knows when it started. Whatever a command gives you, `Get-Member` tells you what it knows. **In Windows PowerShell 5.1** the file's list is two rows shorter (no `LinkTarget` or `UnixFileMode`). **On a Mac or Linux**, `Get-ChildItem` shows other columns, but the objects and `Get-Member` work the same way. **Try it.** Run `Get-Item captions.txt | Get-Member -MemberType Property`. Is the TypeName the same as the photo's? Then try `Get-Item . | Get-Member -MemberType Property`: `.` is the folder you're in. What kind of object is a folder? ## Check yourself 2 questions to try on the lesson page. ## So what A file isn't a line of text on the screen; it's a card full of facts. Whenever you wonder what a command can tell you, pipe it to `Get-Member` and read the card. ## Key terms - [Object](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/object-oop) - [Property](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/property-oop) - [Get-Member](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/get-member) - [Get-Item](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/get-item) - [TypeName](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/typename) ## Cheat sheets - [What an Object Is: Get-Member](https://www.ask-codey.com/cheat-sheets/powershell-what-is-an-object-cheat-sheet) ## Related - [Properties and Methods](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/powershell-properties-and-methods) - [Looking Around: Get-ChildItem](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/powershell-looking-around) Source: https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/powershell-what-is-an-object