PowerShell + DevOps Global Summit 2026

It doesn't matter if you are pulling VM data from Azure, user data from Okta, or your own data from PowerShell Universal, chances are pretty high that you will eventually be formatting data into a PSCustomObject or a Hashtable. Especially if you are writing up a report that involves combining data from mulitple sources. In this session we'll cover the ins and outs of how, when, and why to use both of these object types.To figure out how to use both of these object types, we'll walk through a quick refresher on creating, modifying, and outputting both object types. While no assumption will be made that everyone present will be intimately familiar with PSCustomObjects or Hashtables, this will provide the foundation for the remainder of the demo.To decide when to use which, we'll first compare the performance of each by building large arrays and hashtables. Then we'll look at how easy, or difficult, it can be to work with each object type, being sure to identify specific use cases and nuances between each approach.To know why you might want to use one type over the other, besides reasons already discovered in determining when, we'll focus on how the objects are handled in the pipeline and outputs. This will lead us into the moral of the presentation, which will be revealed.Finally, if time permits, we will also walk through some bonus reasons why you should be using more hashtables.