Automatically convert a PowerShell command to use splatting

calendar Oct 19, 2023 · PowerShell VSCode  ·
Share on: linkedin copy

You have a lengthy multi-parameter PowerShell command that you'd like to convert to use splatting. For example, you want to convert the following command for creating a virtual machine in Azure to use splatting instead of inline parameters.

1New-AzVm -ResourceGroupName myResourceGroup -Name myVM -Location southcentralus -Image Win2022AzureEditionCore -Size Standard_DS2_v2 -VirtualNetworkName myVnet -SubnetName mySubnet -SecurityGroupName myNetworkSecurityGroup -PublicIpAddressName myPublicIpAddress

Prerequisites

Install the EditorServicesCommandSuite module from the PowerShell Gallery.

1Install-Module -Name EditorServicesCommandSuite -AllowPrerelease

Run Import-CommandSuite in your PowerShell Extension integrated terminal session of VS Code.

Import-CommandSuite

Optional: Add the following commands to your PowerShell profile for VS Code to automatically run Import-CommandSuite every time you start a new PowerShell session in VS Code.

Import-CommandSuite imports the EditorServicesCommandSuite module for use in VS Code. The second command runs my standard PowerShell profile by dot-sourcing it.

1# Import the EditorServicesCommandSuite module for use in VS Code
2Import-CommandSuite
3
4# Load your standard profile
5. $HOME/Documents/PowerShell/Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1

I've placed them in my PowerShell CurrentUserCurrentHost profile for VS Code.

PowerShell profiles for VS Code

Convert to splatting

  1. In VS Code, place your cursor somewhere within the command you want to convert to use splatting.

    Place your cursor within the command

  2. Press Ctrl+Shift+P (or F1) to open the command palette in VS Code.

  3. Select PowerShell: Show Additional Commands from PowerShell Modules.

    PowerShell: Show Additional Commands from PowerShell Modules

  4. Then, choose Splat Command.

    Splat Command

As shown in the following example, you successfully converted the command shown earlier in this article to use splatting.

 1$newAzVmSplat = @{
 2    ResourceGroupName = 'myResourceGroup'
 3    Name = 'myVM'
 4    Location = 'southcentralus'
 5    Image = 'Win2022AzureEditionCore'
 6    Size = 'Standard_DS2_v2'
 7    VirtualNetworkName = 'myVnet'
 8    SubnetName = 'mySubnet'
 9    SecurityGroupName = 'myNetworkSecurityGroup'
10    PublicIpAddressName = 'myPublicIpAddress'
11}
12
13New-AzVm @newAzVmSplat

Thanks to Patrick Meinecke for creating the EditorServicesCommandSuite PowerShell module and Sean Wheeler for his thoughts and insights about using the module.

One tip Sean shared is that if you have multiple commands piped together, the command where you place the cursor is the one that's converted to use splatting.

Summary

In this article, you learned how to automatically convert lengthy multi-parameter PowerShell commands to splatting using the EditorServicesCommandSuite PowerShell module in VS Code.

References