Plot Graph in Powershell console

Introduction:

Recently, I was working on my Twiter bot (https://twitter.com/WittyHumorBot) completely written in Powershell, but part automating multiple jobs that run continuously on my screen, I managed to write a script to set all PowerShell consoles automatically in a grid layout like in the below image

But I was not able to do that with taskmgr.exe in order to monitor performance bottlenecks and which was not at all customizable to my needs.

Features and Script:

So I decided to write a function that is customizable and can display a graph in a Powershell console which can also be set in an Automated grid layout (I’ll share the grid layout script in a later blog post).

Also,

• I want to Color-code the output depending upon the Value of the Datapoint; Above/below some predefined thresholds 

  

• Display custom information  on X and Y-Axis labels
• A Graph in the console that is independent and fully customizable, not like Task Manager’s (no need to switch to Performance Tab) and,
• which could be easily used in any Powershell script to monitor performance on any defined parameter, which I see as the biggest benefit of the function.
• The function consumes data points, generated during script execution or Pre-stored data like from a file or database.

Following is the full script and here is the link to the Github Project, please feel free to contribute as I still see some possibilities of improvement.

	<#
	.SYNOPSIS
	Draws graph in the Powershell console
	.DESCRIPTION
	Consumes datapoints and draws colored coded fully customizable graph in the Powershell console.
	.PARAMETER Datapoints
	Array of data points which is to be plotted on the graph
	.PARAMETER XAxisTitle
	Label on the X-Axis
	.PARAMETER YAxisTitle
	Label on the Y-Axis
	.EXAMPLE
	Show-Graph -Datapoints $Datapoints
	.EXAMPLE
	Show-Graph -Datapoints $Datapoints -XAxisTitle "Avg. CPU utilization" -YAxisTitle "Percentage"
	.NOTES
	Blog: https://geekeefy.wordpress.com/
	Author: https://twitter.com/SinghPrateik
	Features and Benefits:
	* Color-coded output depending upon the Value of Datapoint
	* Custom X an Y-Axis labels
	* Graph in console is independent and fully customizable, not like Task Manager (Performance Tab)
	* Could be incorporated in Powershell scripts
	* Can consume datapoints generated during script run or Pre stored data like in a file or database.
	#>
	Function Show-Graph {
	[cmdletbinding()]
	[alias("Graph")]
	Param(
	# Parameter help description
	[Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
	[int[]] $Datapoints,
	[String] $XAxisTitle = 'X-Axis',
	[String] $YAxisTitle = 'Y Axis'
	)
	$NumOfDatapoints = $Datapoints.Count
	$NumOfLabelsOnYAxis = 10
	$XAxis = " "+"-"*($NumOfDatapoints+3)
	$YAxisTitleAlphabetCounter = 0
	$YAxisTitleStartIdx = 1
	$YAxisTitleEndIdx = $YAxisTitleStartIdx + $YAxisTitle.Length -1
	If($YAxisTitle.Length -gt $NumOfLabelsOnYAxis){
	Write-Warning "No. Alphabets in YAxisTitle [$($YAxisTitle.Length)] can't be greator than no. of Labels on Y-Axis [$NumOfLabelsOnYAxis]"
	Write-Warning "YAxisTitle will be cropped"
	}
	If($XAxisTitle.Length -gt $XAxis.length-3){
	$XAxisLabel = " "+$XAxisTitle
	}else{
	$XAxisLabel = " "+(" "*(($XAxis.Length – $XAxisTitle.Length)/2))+$XAxisTitle
	}
	# Create a 2D Array to save datapoints in a 2D format
	$Array = New-Object 'object[,]' ($NumOfLabelsOnYAxis+1),$NumOfDatapoints
	$Count = 0
	$Datapoints | ForEach-Object {
	$r = [Math]::Floor($_/10)
	$Array[$r,$Count] = [char] 9608
	1..$R | ForEach-Object {$Array[$_,$Count] = [char] 9608}
	$Count++
	}
	# Draw graph
	For($i=10;$i -gt 0;$i–){
	$Row = ''
	For($j=0;$j -lt $NumOfDatapoints;$j++){
	$Cell = $Array[$i,$j]
	$String = If([String]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($Cell)){' '}else{$Cell}
	$Row = [string]::Concat($Row,$String)
	}
	$YAxisLabel = $i*10
	# Condition to fix the spacing issue of a 3 digit vs 2 digit number [like 100 vs 90] on the Y-Axis
	If("$YAxisLabel".length -lt 3){$YAxisLabel = (" "*(3-("$YAxisLabel".length)))+$YAxisLabel}
	If($i -in $YAxisTitleStartIdx..$YAxisTitleEndIdx){
	$YAxisLabelAlphabet = $YAxisTitle[$YAxisTitleAlphabetCounter]+" "
	$YAxisTitleAlphabetCounter++
	}
	else {
	$YAxisLabelAlphabet = ' '
	}
	# To color the graph depending upon the datapoint value
	If ($i -gt 7) {Write-Host $YAxisLabelAlphabet -ForegroundColor DarkYellow -NoNewline ;Write-Host "$YAxisLabel|" -NoNewline; Write-Host $Row -ForegroundColor Red}
	elseif ($i -le 7 -and $i -gt 4) {Write-Host $YAxisLabelAlphabet -ForegroundColor DarkYellow -NoNewline ;Write-Host "$YAxisLabel|" -NoNewline; Write-Host $Row -ForegroundColor Yellow}
	elseif($i -le 4 -and $i -ge 1) {Write-Host $YAxisLabelAlphabet -ForegroundColor DarkYellow -NoNewline ;Write-Host "$YAxisLabel|" -NoNewline; Write-Host $Row -ForegroundColor Green}
	else {Write-Host "$YAxisLabel|"}
	}
	$XAxis # Prints X-Axis horizontal line
	Write-Host $XAxisLabel -ForegroundColor DarkYellow # Prints XAxisTitle
	}
	#$Datapoints = (1..100|Get-Random -Count 50)
	#Show-Graph -Datapoints $Datapoints -XAxisTitle "Avg. CPU utilization" -YAxisTitle "Percentage"

view raw

Show-Graph.ps1

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Hope you’ll find the script useful and Thanks for reading.

Please do follow me on twitter for more Interesting PowerShell material and don’t forget to Showoff your Powershell console graph to your colleagues, Cheers! 😉

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