How to sort the output in PowerShell?

To sort the output in the PowerShell you need to use Sort-Object Pipeline cmdlet. In the below example, we will retrieve the output from the Get-Process command and we will sort the, according to memory and CPU usage.

Example

Get-Process | Sort-Object WorkingSet | Select -First 10

Output

Handles  NPM(K)    PM(K)      WS(K)     CPU(s)     Id  SI ProcessName -------  ------    -----      -----     ------     --  -- -----------       0       0       60          8                 0   0 Idle     144       8     1840        232       0.14   8396   1 SkypeBackgroundHost     514      26    19280        300       0.73  16872   1 Calculator    1140      50    63584        464      15.86  10688   1 ksdeui      53       3     1212        816       0.30    580   0 smss     217      17     3432       1848      37.03  13272   1 ptim     486      26     7404       2228     168.86  13732   1 ptsrv      32       6     1636       2440       0.16   1092   0 fontdrvhost      86       5      968       3620       0.00   1060   0 svchost      85       6     1208       4104       0.59   4116   0 ibtsiva

In the above example, the output is stored into ascending order which is the default order and then we have retrieved the first 10 processes.

If you want to output in Descending order then you need to add the parameter − Descending.

Example

Get-Process | Sort-Object WorkingSet -Descending | Select -First 10

Output

Handles  NPM(K)    PM(K)      WS(K)     CPU(s)     Id  SI ProcessName      -------  ------    -----      -----     ------     --  -- -----------            0       0     3660     719552     544.86   2580   0 Memory Compression          968     125  1132200     487196   6,867.28   4228   1 chrome         1867     150   294740     332516   1,136.42  19036   1 WINWORD         1137      46   446876     305092   2,470.48  14560   1 chrome          583      38   309476     250312     755.97  15652   1 chrome         3597     107   275080     226752  11,615.69  12712   1 chrome          464      59   179012     172652   1,938.55  18732   1 chrome          350      31   191756     157716     339.11   5952   1 chrome          607      61   129380     156224     106.52   7712   1 Code          536      31   186496     146176      35.81  10352   1 Code

Similarly, you can sort CPU and other properties as well in the ascending / descending order as shown in the below example.

Example

Get-Process | Sort-Object CPU | Select -First 10

Get-Process | Sort-Object CPU -Descending | Select -First 10