How to display formatted output with Write-Host [duplicate]

Question

I'm little confused about how PowerShell handles the format of the objects when they displayed with Write-Host vs. Write-Output vs. directly calling the object.

I need to use Write-Host, because Write-Output breaks my code when I call it in functions.

But when I used Write-Host, displayed data is not what I expected. I wanted to see my object like in when I directly called it (Write-Host is also the same).

PS> $files = GetChildItem C:\
PS> $files # Or Write-Output $files
PS> Write-Host $files
PS> Write-Host $files |Format-Table
PS> $files | Format-Table | Write-Host

Answer 1

Out-String will convert the table format to a string. As pointed out by Nick Daniels

 $files | Format-Table | Out-String|% {Write-Host $_}