Question

I am a C# .NET developer/architect and understand that it uses objects (.NET objects) and not just streams/text.

I would like to be able to use PowerShell to call methods on my .NET (C# library) assembies.

How do I reference an assembly in PowerShell and use the assembly?

Answer 1

Take a look at the blog post Load a Custom DLL from PowerShell:

Take, for example, a simple math library. It has a static Sum method, and an instance Product method:

namespace MyMathLib
{
    public class Methods
    {
        public Methods()
        {
        }

        public static int Sum(int a, int b)
        {
            return a + b;
        }

        public int Product(int a, int b)
        {
            return a * b;
        }
    }
}

Compile and run in PowerShell:

> [Reflection.Assembly]::LoadFile("c:\temp\MyMathLib.dll")
> [MyMathLib.Methods]::Sum(10, 2)

> $mathInstance = new-object MyMathLib.Methods
> $mathInstance.Product(10, 2)