How do I create an anonymous object in PowerShell?

Question

I want to create an object of arbitrary values, sort of like how I can do this in C#

var anon = new { Name = \"Ted\", Age = 10 };

Answer 1

You can do any of the following, in order of easiest usage:

1. Use Vanilla Hashtable with PowerShell 5+

   In PS5, a vanilla hash table will work for most use cases

   $o = @{ Name = "Ted"; Age = 10 }
   

   
   

2. Convert Hashtable to PSCustomObject

   If you don't have a strong preference, just use this where vanilla hash tables won't work:

   $o = [pscustomobject]@{
       Name = "Ted";
       Age = 10
   }
   

   
   

3. Using Select-Object cmdlet

   $o = Select-Object @{n='Name';e={'Ted'}},
                      @{n='Age';e={10}} `
                      -InputObject ''
   

   
   

4. Using New-Object and Add-Member

   $o = New-Object -TypeName psobject
   $o | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name Name -Value 'Ted'
   $o | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name Age -Value 10
   

   
   

5. Using New-Object and hashtables

   $properties = @{
       Name = "Ted";
       Age = 10
   }
   $o = New-Object psobject -Property $properties;
   

Note: Objects vs. HashTables

Hashtables are just dictionaries containing keys and values, meaning you might not get the expected results from other PS functions that look for objects and properties:

$o = @{ Name="Ted"; Age= 10; }
$o | Select -Property *

Further Reading

• 4 Ways to Create PowerShell Objects
• Everything you wanted to know about hashtables
• Everything you wanted to know about PSCustomObject