Summary: Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, helps a reader with a Windows PowerShell and SQL Server scripting issue.
Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, is here. This morning I am sipping a nice cup of Darjeeling tea. I added a bit of peppermint leaves, spearmint leaves, orange peel, licorice root, and a cinnamon stick. The result is very refreshing, with just a little bit of a kick to help jump start one's scripting. I was reviewing my scripter@microsoft.com email this morning, and I ran across the following question:
Hey, Scripting Guy! Is there good training content available for Windows PowerShell basics and an introduction to Windows PowerShell for SQL Server?
—PB
I engaged in a rather long conversation. This post is the result of that conversation.
Round one:
Hello PB,
Sure! There are lots of great resources for learning Windows PowerShell and SQL Server scripting. Check out these Hey, Scripting Guy! Blog posts. I have more than three dozen posts there.
Round two:
Thanks Ed!
I went through some of the links and they were very useful. But I am looking for some good training content for Windows PowerShell basics and an introduction to Windows PowerShell for SQL Server.
My Windows PowerShell Scripting page in the Script Center has over a dozen hours of training for Windows PowerShell basics, but there is nothing specific to SQL Server and Windows PowerShell other than the information I gave you earlier.
Round three:
Hi Ed,
I went through your links and learned a quite a bit. Thanks for the good references. I’m running into an issue when reading data from a data table. Can you please help me find what I’m doing wrong here:
foreach ($Row in $SrvList.Rows)
{
write-host ("value is : ", $Row[0][1])
}
$srvlist.rows contains a collection of rows. $row is your enumerator, and you should be able to list $row instead of trying to index into the collection. Inside your loop, $row will have members, you can use $row | Get-Member to find those members, which will probably include column headings. Access the items via the members instead of by index number.
You can also directly access rows by using $srvlist. Use $srvlist.rows[0] for the first row, and pipe this to Get-Member to see the members. Hope this helps.
Round four:
Hi Ed,
I tried $SrvList.Rows[0] | Get-Member, and it is giving the following error message:
Here’s the full script:
Function GetServerList
{
$sqlConnection = new-object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection "Server=localhost;Database=SSISPROTOSERVERS;Integrated Security=sspi"
$sqlConnection.Open()
#Create a command object
$sqlCommand = $sqlConnection.CreateCommand()
$sqlCommand.CommandText = "select * from ServerList"
$adapter = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataAdapter $sqlcommand
$dataset = New-Object System.Data.DataSet
$adapter.Fill($dataSet) | out-null
# Close the database connection
$sqlConnection.Close()
$dataTable = new-object "System.Data.DataTable" "ServerList"
$dataTable = $dataSet.Tables[0]
return $dataTable
}
$SrvList = GetServerList
Write-Host("There are ", $SrvList.Count, " SQL Servers in the list")
$SrvList | format-table -AutoSize
foreach ($Row in $SrvList.Rows)
{
$SrvList.Rows[0] | Get-Member
}
What does $dataTable return? What happens when we pipe it to Get-Member? What does $rows return?
You should be able to type $dataTable, and it will return your DataTable object. $rows should return the Rows object. If they don't, you are not making the connection and returning proper data. You need to backtrack all the way to $sqlconnection, which should return a connection object. Pipe it to Get-Member also.
Remember your scoping, so that $sqlconnection only exists inside the function. You need to add a line after you make the connection:
$sqlconnection | Get-Member
You do not need Return because Windows PowerShell always returns an object from a function, but Return makes the script easier to read, so it is no problem leaving it there.
Round five:
Hi Ed,
These two statements return fine with the actual data:
Write-Host("There are ", $SrvList.Count, " SQL Servers in the list")
2
$SrvList | format-table -AutoSize
But I can’t display the rows.
foreach ($Row in $SrvList.Rows)
{
write-host ("Rows : ")
$Row
}
Pipe SrvList to Get-Member. You will see at least two properties: ServerName and InstanceName. To access the name, you need to use $row.ServerName.
Round six:
Thanks a lot Ed! Yup. Using $row.ServerName worked!
~PB
That is all there is to using Windows PowerShell to query from a SQL Server database. Join me tomorrow when I will talk about more cool stuff.
I invite you to follow me on Twitter and Facebook. If you have any questions, send email to me at scripter@microsoft.com, or post your questions on the Official Scripting Guys Forum. See you tomorrow. Until then, peace.
Ed Wilson, Microsoft Scripting Guy