I'm sure we've all been there. Some command takes a solid 30s to run to completion, and then… just dumps all output to the console. And it is only then that we realise that we needed to process or reuse that output.

PS> Get-ChildItem -Path 'C:\Users' -Recurse -Depth 2

# ... oh shoot, I forgot to store it into a variable again

The Answer

While it would be awesome to have some $LastOutput variable automatically assigned by PS itself, you may be interested to know that it's something you can already add for yourself — kind of.

$PSDefaultParameterValues['Out-Default:OutVariable'] = 'LastOut'

What this does is that any time Out-Default is called, by any function or cmdlet, it automatically applies the parameter -OutVariable 'LastOut' to the call. If you aren't currently aware, Out-Default is the command that all output passes through in PowerShell unless it's deliberately handed directly to a Format-* cmdlet like Format-Table.

So, in a nutshell, you now have a variable called $LastOut which stores the complete output of the last command sequence you entered, provided you didn't call a Format-* cmdlet before it reaches the host / default output.

Some caveats:

• Only the last command's final output is stored.
• Output is stored in an ArrayList.
• As mentioned, sending output to a Format-* cmdlet prevents it from being captured.
• It's possible that PowerShell would run out of memory if you attempt to store the results of too large a command — however, the likelihood is low in general practice.
• Directly reassigning the full output can get tricky. It is assigned by reference by default, which is often undesirable.
  • To circumvent this, you can force PS to enumerate it before storing elsewhere ($Data = $($LastOut)) or manually retrieve the array ($Data = $LastOut.ToArray()). Both are both good choices, but potentially the array option may be quicker.

With that said, I've found it invaluable to add this to my PowerShell profile scripts; it can save quite a bit of time!