As you are aware, Read-Host cmdlet can be used to read single line input from users in PowerShell. But there is no out-of-the-box cmdlet to read multi line input from users. We can achieve this in a roundabout way:
$inputFromUser = @()
$input = ''
While($input -ne "q") {
If ($input -ne $null) {
$InputFromUser += $input.Trim()
}
$input = Read-Host "Enter the input here (Enter 'q' to exit) "
}
$inputFromUser = $inputFromUser[1..($inputFromUser.Length-1)]
Below’s is a sample run from my machine:
We can also do this using GUI in PowerShell. For that, we have to import some .NET based assemblies related to GUI. The following code is based on this Technet article:
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| # This script is used in a blog post on the https://mohitgoyal.co/2017/04/16/read-multi-line-input-from-users-in-powershell/. Please | |
| # read the blog post for more information | |
| function Read-MultiLineInputBoxDialog([string]$Message, [string]$WindowTitle, [string]$DefaultText) | |
| { | |
| Add-Type –AssemblyName System.Drawing | |
| Add-Type –AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms | |
| # Create the Label. | |
| $label = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Label | |
| $label.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(10,10) | |
| $label.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(280,20) | |
| $label.AutoSize = $true | |
| $label.Text = $Message | |
| # Create the TextBox used to capture the user's text. | |
| $textBox = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.TextBox | |
| $textBox.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(10,40) | |
| $textBox.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(575,200) | |
| $textBox.AcceptsReturn = $true | |
| $textBox.AcceptsTab = $false | |
| $textBox.Multiline = $true | |
| $textBox.ScrollBars = 'Both' | |
| $textBox.Text = $DefaultText | |
| # Create the OK button. | |
| $okButton = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Button | |
| $okButton.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(415,250) | |
| $okButton.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(75,25) | |
| $okButton.Text = "OK" | |
| $okButton.Add_Click({ $form.Tag = $textBox.Text; $form.Close() }) | |
| # Create the Cancel button. | |
| $cancelButton = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Button | |
| $cancelButton.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(510,250) | |
| $cancelButton.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(75,25) | |
| $cancelButton.Text = "Cancel" | |
| $cancelButton.Add_Click({ $form.Tag = $null; $form.Close() }) | |
| # Create the form. | |
| $form = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Form | |
| $form.Text = $WindowTitle | |
| $form.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(610,320) | |
| $form.FormBorderStyle = 'FixedSingle' | |
| $form.StartPosition = "CenterScreen" | |
| $form.AutoSizeMode = 'GrowAndShrink' | |
| $form.Topmost = $True | |
| $form.AcceptButton = $okButton | |
| $form.CancelButton = $cancelButton | |
| $form.ShowInTaskbar = $true | |
| # Add all of the controls to the form. | |
| $form.Controls.Add($label) | |
| $form.Controls.Add($textBox) | |
| $form.Controls.Add($okButton) | |
| $form.Controls.Add($cancelButton) | |
| # Initialize and show the form. | |
| $form.Add_Shown({$form.Activate()}) | |
| $form.ShowDialog() > $null # Trash the text of the button that was clicked. | |
| # Return the text that the user entered. | |
| return $form.Tag | |
| } | |
| $multiLineText = Read-MultiLineInputBoxDialog –Message "Please enter some text. It can be multiple lines" –WindowTitle "Multi Line Example" –DefaultText "Enter some text here…" | |
| if ($multiLineText -eq $null) { Write-Host "You clicked Cancel" } | |
| else { Write-Host "You entered the following text: $multiLineText" } | |
Below is a sample run from my machine:
Give it a try by yourself !
mohitgoyal.co 
It seems that this method has a hard line limit of 350. That is, any multiline input that has more than 350 lines (or maybe < 32768 characters) will be truncated. Is there any way around this?
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