How to build an interactive menu with PowerShell

What a great und useful article!

Thank you Adam!

function show-menu {

[void][reflection.assembly]::Load('System.Windows.Forms, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089')
$formShowmenu = New-Object 'System.Windows.Forms.Form'
$combobox1 = New-Object 'System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox'


$combobox1_SelectedIndexChanged = {
$script:var = $combobox1.SelectedItem
$formShowmenu.Close()
}


$formShowmenu.Controls.Add($combobox1)
$formShowmenu.AutoScaleDimensions = '6, 13'
$formShowmenu.AutoScaleMode = 'Font'
$formShowmenu.ClientSize = '284, 70'

#add array of items
[void]$combobox1.Items.Addrange(1 .. 10)

#add single item
#[void]$combobox1.Items.Add('Single Item')

$combobox1.Location = '45, 25'
$combobox1.Size = '187, 21'
$combobox1.add_SelectedIndexChanged($combobox1_SelectedIndexChanged)

$formShowmenu.ShowDialog() | out-null

write-output $var
}
show-menu

i don’t know what is the problem, but i stuck here:

do
{
    $input = Read-Host " what do you want to do? 
                        `n1)  list all the Vms
                        `n2) do something to the Vms?
                        `n
                        `n * what is your choice?"

                       
    switch ($input)
    {
        '1' { "you choose to list all the avalibale VMs on the pc"
            
            if($input -eq '1') {
                
                get-vm
               
                }
            }
        '2' {
            cls
            'You chose option #2'
            }
        '3' {
            cls
            'You chose option #3'
            }
        'q' {
            return
            }
    }
    pause
}
until ($input -eq 'q')

Hopefully you are still monitoring this feedback and responding, I know this article is old. And please forgive my newness to PowerShell, I am a Linux guy diving head first into PowerShell.

I've created the script just prior to the do / until section. And that is where you lost me… And this might just be a super simple question, but like I said, I have been working with PowerShell for all of 3 days now…

My script thus far is as follows.

function Show-Menu
{
    param (
        [string]$Title = 'Select a profile'
    )
    Clear-Host
    Write-Host "================ $Title ================"
    
    Write-Host "1: Press '1' ARIZONA."
    Write-Host "2: Press '2' COLORADO."
    Write-Host "3: Press '3' FLORIDA."
    Write-Host "3: Press '4' MONTANA."
    Write-Host "3: Press '5' OHIO."
    Write-Host "3: Press '6' TEXAS."
    Write-Host "3: Press '7' WYOMING."
    Write-Host "Q: Press 'Q' to quit."
}
Show-Menu –Title 'Select a profile'
 $selection = Read-Host "Please make a selection"
 switch ($selection)
 {
     '1' {
         'You chose option #1 ARIZONA'
     } '2' {
         'You chose option #2 COLORADO'
     } '3' {
         'You chose option #3 FLORIDA'
     } '4' {
         'You chose option #4 MONTANA'
     } '5' {
         'You chose option #5 OHIO'
     } '6' {
         'You chose option #6 TEXAS'
     } '7' {
         'You chose option #7 WYOMING'
     } 'q' {
         return
     }
 }

Now I want the output of the script to just give the state name, and be held as a variable, let's just say $State

How would I go about just clipping out the segment I want, and assigning it to the variable in question?

Hello,

Thank you for this very helpful script!

Now please, cold anyone advise, from this script, how you would trigger the following actions :

++ If highlight "option 1" menu, and press ok , the script will open a file located here :

https://my.server.com/Word/Documents/MyDocument1.docx

++ If highlight "option 2" menu, and press ok , the script will open a file located here :

https://my.server.com/Word/Documents/MyDocument2.docx

etc..

Many MANY thanks in anticipation!!

Anthony

I can't seem to update or edit my post as I made a small fix. Here is the updated version:

Function Show-MenuHC {
    <#
    .SYNOPSIS
        Show a selection menu in the console

    .DESCRIPTION
        Allow the user to select an option int he console and return the 
        selected value afterwards. When the parameter `-QuitSelector` is used
        the user is also able to select nothing and just leave the menu with no
        return value.

    .EXAMPLE
        Show-MenuHC -Items @('a', 'b', 'c') -QuitSelector @{ 'Q' = 'Quit' }

        1) a
        2) b
        3) c
        Q) Quit
        Select an option:

        Displays the menu with an option to select nothing by pressing `q`

    .EXAMPLE
        $fruits = @(
            [PSCustomObject]@{
                Name  = 'banana'; Color = 'yellow'; Shape = 'long'
            }
            [PSCustomObject]@{
                Name  = 'kiwi'; Color = 'green'; Shape = 'oval'
            }
            [PSCustomObject]@{
                Name  = 'apples'; Color = 'red'; Shape = 'round'
            }
        )

        $params = @{
            Items           = $fruits 
            QuitSelector    = $null 
            SelectionPrompt = 'Select a fruit you like:'
        }
        $myFavoriteFruit = Show-MenuHC @params

        1) @{Name=banana; Color=yellow; Shape=long}
        2) @{Name=kiwi; Color=green; Shape=oval}
        3) @{Name=apples; Color=red; Shape=round}
        'Select a fruit you like:'
        
        Displays the menu where the user is forced to select one of the 3 
        options. When selected the result is stored in the variable 
        '$myFavoriteFruit'
    #>

    [CmdLetBinding()]
    Param (
        [Parameter(Mandatory, ValueFromPipeline)]
        [Array]$Items,
        $QuitSelector = @{ 'Q' = 'Quit' },
        $displayTemplate = '{0}) {1}',
        $SelectionPrompt = 'Select an option:'
    )

    #region Build hash table with selector and value
    $hash = [Ordered]@{}

    for ($i = 0; $i -lt $Items.Count; $i++) {
        $key = "$($i+1)"; $value = $Items[$i]
        $hash[$key] = $value
    }
    #endregion

    #region Get the quit selector key if there is one
    $quitSelectorKey = $null

    if ($QuitSelector) {
        if ($QuitSelector.Keys[0] -match '^[0-9]+$') {
            throw 'The quit selector cannot be a number'
        }
        if ($QuitSelector.Count -ne 1) {
            throw 'The quit selector can hold only one key value pair'
        }

        $quitSelectorKey = $quitSelector.GetEnumerator() | 
        Select-Object -ExpandProperty Key

        if ($quitSelectorKey -isNot [String]) {
            throw 'The quit selector key needs to be of type string'
        }
    }
    #endregion

    #region Display the menu
    do {
        foreach ($item in $hash.getEnumerator()) {
            $params = @{
                Object          = $displayTemplate -f 
                $item.key, "$($item.Value)" 
                ForegroundColor = 'yellow'
            }
            Write-Host @params
        }
        if ($QuitSelector) {
            $params = @{
                Object          = $displayTemplate -f 
                $quitSelectorKey, "$($QuitSelector.Values[0])"
                ForegroundColor = 'DarkGray'
            }
            Write-Host @params
        }

        $selected = Read-Host -Prompt $SelectionPrompt
    } until (
        ($hash.Keys -contains $selected) -or 
        ($selected -eq $quitSelectorKey)
    )
    #endregion

    #region Return the selected value
    if ($selected -ne $quitSelectorKey) {
        $returnValue = $hash[$selected]
        Write-Verbose "Selected: $selected) $returnValue"
        $returnValue
    }
    #endregion
}

Further updated to this code can be found on GitHub here.