PowerShell Genie

Sort processes alphabetically in PowerShell

Exercise 2 min read Windows PowerShell 5.1 and PowerShell 7

Documentation: Microsoft Learn

Write a pipeline, run it against the sample data, and check your result.

An example to inspect

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Get-Process | Sort-Object Name

Target

Return every process in ascending Name order.

Expected result

chrome, MsMpEng, notepad, pwsh, spoolsv

Try the task

Show a worked solution
Reveal one approach
1PS> Get-Process | Sort-Object Name

Try it in the lab

Write your pipeline below and run it against the fictional sample data, then check your result against the expected answer.

Interactive simulation · fictional data

PowerShell skills

Process objects · Sorting

Build the answer in three decisions

Read the pipeline from left to right. Each stage receives objects from the stage before it.

Collect

Get-Process

Start with 5 fictional process objects. Keep them as objects so later stages can inspect their properties.

Shape

Sort-Object Name

Apply the condition or ordering required by the task. Name is a sortable property.

Verify

Check order and returned names

The fixture should return chrome, MsMpEng, notepad, pwsh, spoolsv. Order matters for this exercise.

Reason through the pipeline

The source stage returns 5 process objects. Then the pipeline applies Sort-Object Name without converting the objects to display text. That keeps the Name property available for the checker and for any later pipeline stage.

Why common attempts fail

Do not select the first rows before sorting when the task asks for a highest, lowest, first, or reverse-ordered result.

What the checker accepts

The evaluator runs the supported subset against the same fictional fixture. It expects chrome, MsMpEng, notepad, pwsh, spoolsv. The returned order is part of the answer. Equivalent supported syntax is accepted.

Verify another attempt

First run Get-Process by itself and inspect the fixture. Then add one stage at a time and compare how many objects remain. This isolates the stage that changes the result and makes the final pipeline easier to explain and debug.

Primary documentation

PowerShell pipeline behavior

Next exercise
Genie guideSort processes alphabetically in PowerShell

Write a pipeline, run it against the sample data, and check your result.