Why automation saves time in PowerShell - See It in Action

Why automation saves time

📖 Scenario: You work in an office where you need to check the size of several folders every day. Doing this manually takes a lot of time. Automation can help you save time by doing this task automatically.

🎯 Goal: Build a simple PowerShell script that lists folder names and their sizes automatically, showing how automation saves time.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a list of folder names with their sizes in megabytes

Set a size threshold to filter folders larger than this size

Use a loop to select folders larger than the threshold

Print the filtered folder names and sizes

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Automating folder size checks helps office workers save time by avoiding manual checking every day.

💼 Career

Many IT and office jobs require automating repetitive tasks to improve efficiency and reduce errors.

1

Create the folder size data

Create a variable called folders that holds a list of hashtables. Each hashtable should have Name and SizeMB keys with these exact values: Name = 'Docs', SizeMB = 120, Name = 'Photos', SizeMB = 80, Name = 'Videos', SizeMB = 300.

PowerShell

# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use @() to create a list and @{} to create each folder's data.

2

Set the size threshold

Create a variable called sizeThreshold and set it to 100 to filter folders larger than 100 MB.

PowerShell

$folders = @(
    @{Name = 'Docs'; SizeMB = 120},
    @{Name = 'Photos'; SizeMB = 80},
    @{Name = 'Videos'; SizeMB = 300}
)
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Just create a variable and assign the number 100.

3

Filter folders larger than the threshold

Create a variable called largeFolders that uses a foreach loop with variable folder to go through $folders. Inside the loop, add folders to largeFolders only if $folder.SizeMB is greater than $sizeThreshold.

PowerShell

$folders = @(
    @{Name = 'Docs'; SizeMB = 120},
    @{Name = 'Photos'; SizeMB = 80},
    @{Name = 'Videos'; SizeMB = 300}
)

$sizeThreshold = 100

# Your code here

Need a hint?

Start with an empty list, then add folders inside the loop if they are bigger than the threshold.

4

Print the filtered folders

Use a foreach loop with variable folder to go through $largeFolders and print each folder's name and size in this format: Folder: Docs, Size: 120 MB.

PowerShell

$folders = @(
    @{Name = 'Docs'; SizeMB = 120},
    @{Name = 'Photos'; SizeMB = 80},
    @{Name = 'Videos'; SizeMB = 300}
)

$sizeThreshold = 100

$largeFolders = @()
foreach ($folder in $folders) {
    if ($folder.SizeMB -gt $sizeThreshold) {
        $largeFolders += $folder
    }
}

# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use Write-Output with $( ) to insert variables inside the string.