Powershell: differences between | and >?

Question

In PowerShell, what are differences between | and >?

dir | CLIP #move data to clipboard
dir > CLIP #not moving, creating file CLIP (no extension)

Am I right to assume | moves the current result to the next block in the pipeline and > saves data to a file?

Are there any other differences?

Answer 1

(not fully) yes.

| and > are two different things.

> is a so called redirection operator.

A redirection operator redirects the output of a stream to a file or another stream. The pipeline operator pipes the return object of a cmdlet or funtion to the next one (or the end of the pipeline). While the pipe pumps the whole object with its properties, the redirect pipes just its output. We can illustrate this with a simple example:

#Get the first process in the process list and pipe it to `Set-Content`
PS> (Get-Process)[0] | Set-Content D:\test.test
PS> Get-Content D:/test.test

Outputs

System.Diagnostics.Process (AdAppMgrSvc)

A try to convert the object to a string.

---

#Do the same, but now redirect the (formatted) output to the file
PS> (Get-Process)[0] > D:\test.test
PS> Get-Content D:/test.test

Outputs

Handles  NPM(K)    PM(K)      WS(K)     CPU(s)     Id  SI ProcessName
-------  ------    -----      -----     ------     --  -- -----------
    420      25     6200       7512              3536   0 AdAppMgrSvc

---

A third example will show the capabilities of the pipe operator:

PS> (Get-Process)[0] | select * | Set-Content D:\test.test
PS> Get-Content D:/test.test

This will output a Hashtable with all process's properties:

@{Name=AdAppMgrSvc; Id=3536; PriorityClass=; FileVersion=; HandleCount=420; WorkingSet=9519104; PagedMemorySize=6045696; PrivateMemorySize=6045696; VirtualMemorySize=110989312; TotalProcessorTime=; SI=0; Handles=420; VM=110989312; WS=9519104; PM=6045696; NPM=25128; Path=; Company=; CPU=; ProductVersion=; Description=; Product=; __NounName=Process; BasePriority=8; ExitCode=; HasExited=; ExitTime=; Handle=; SafeHandle=; MachineName=.; MainWindowHandle=0; MainWindowTitle=; MainModule=; MaxWorkingSet=; MinWorkingSet=; Modules=; NonpagedSystemMemorySize=25128; NonpagedSystemMemorySize64=25128; PagedMemorySize64=6045696; PagedSystemMemorySize=236160; PagedSystemMemorySize64=236160; PeakPagedMemorySize=7028736; PeakPagedMemorySize64=7028736; PeakWorkingSet=19673088; PeakWorkingSet64=19673088; PeakVirtualMemorySize=135786496; PeakVirtualMemorySize64=135786496; PriorityBoostEnabled=; PrivateMemorySize64=6045696; PrivilegedProcessorTime=; ProcessName=AdAppMgrSvc; ProcessorAffinity=; Responding=True; SessionId=0; StartInfo=System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo; StartTime=; SynchronizingObject=; Threads=System.Diagnostics.ProcessThreadCollection; UserProcessorTime=; VirtualMemorySize64=110989312; EnableRaisingEvents=False; StandardInput=; StandardOutput=; StandardError=; WorkingSet64=9519104; Site=; Container=}