PowerShell 2.0: One Cmdlet at a Time #1 Get-Random

This is the first of a series looking at new cmdlets available in PowerShell 2.0. We begin by looking at the Get-Random cmdlet.

What can I do with it?

With Get-Random you can either generate a random number, or randomly select objects from a collection.

Examples:

Generate a random number between 1 and 100.

Get-Random -Minimum 1 -Maximum 101

Select a random object from a collection

$users = 'Rod','Jane','Freddy'
Get-Random $users

Select a random Windows Service

Get-Service | Get-Random

How could I have done this in PowerShell 1.0?

Generate a random number between 1 and 100 using .NET.

$randomnumber = New-Object System.Random
$randomnumber.next(1,101)

Select a random object from a collection

$users = 'Rod','Jane','Freddy'
$randomnumber = New-Object System.Random
$i = $randomnumber.next(0,$users.length)
$users[$i]

How did I decide to begin this series with Get-Random?

Get-Command | Get-Random

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