Powershell: align right for a column value from Select-Object in Format-Table format

Question

I have the following array value $outData with several columns. I am not sure how I align some columns right?

$outData | Select-Object `
      Name `
      @{Name="Freespace(byte)"; Expression={"{0:N0}" -f $_.FreeSpace}}, '
      .... # other colums `
 | Format-Table -AutoSize

It works fine. However, when I tried to use align for the freespace column to right:

      @{Name="Freespace(byte)"; Expression={"{0:N0}" -f $_.FreeSpace}; align="right"}, '

I got error message "Specified method is not supported". Not sure if there is any way to align the value to right?

Answer 1

The align directive goes in a hashtable that is specified to the Format-Table cmdlet. IOW, align is not a supported hashtable entry for Select-Object. So make sure to do your formatting via hashtables in the hashtable passed to Format-Table e.g.:

gps | select name,pm | format-table @{n='Name';e={$_.Name};align='right'},PM

or in your case:

$outData | Format-Table Name,
                  @{n="Freespace(byte)";e={"{0:N0}" -f $_.FreeSpace};a="right"}

Answer 2

Given the updates to Powershell in the last 8 years, this answer may not have existed in '10.

The trick is to assign a number of columns within the calculated expression's format block {0:N0}, once assigned, it will align the column to the right.

In the original example, include ,15 as part of the number formatting:

@{Name="Freespace(byte)"; Expression={"{0,15:N0}" -f $_.FreeSpace}}

I generally use the character count of the Name= value to ensure the entire name is visible.