In PowerShell, what's the difference between the operators "( )" and "|", such as `Write-Output (Get-Process)` and `Get-Process | Write-Output`?

I'm a novice in PowerShell.

Recently I encountered a problem about how to cascade commands or functions. I've found 2 ways:

• CMD_B (CMD_A ($x))
• $x | CMD_A | CMD_B

But, what's the difference between the above 2 ways?

For example, the results of Write-Output (Get-Process) and Get-Process | Write-Output look the same. Are there different details hidden?

I've searched the doc about grouping-operator () and Pipeline operator |, and find:

Piping grouped expressions

When used as the first segment of a pipeline, wrapping a command or expression in parentheses invariably causes enumeration of the expression result. If the parentheses wrap a command, it's run to completion with all output collected in memory before the results are sent through the pipeline.

Grouping an expression before piping also ensures that subsequent object-by-object processing can't interfere with the enumeration the command uses to produce its output.

But I don't quite understand it. Maybe it's because I lack the basic knowledge of pipelines.

Thanks in advance.

Start from the base that Write-Output (Get-Process) is the same as storing the output from Get-Process in a variable and passing it as argument to Write-Output. When you use (...) the expression must be evaluated first, before the subsequent command receives that output, this can mean for example higher memory consumption.

# can be considered the same as `Write-Output (Get-Process)`
$tmp = Get-Process
Write-Output $tmp
$tmp = $null

With the pipeline instead what you have is One-at-a-time processing, the subsequent command receives and processes one item at a time as soon as the preceding in pipeline starts outputting.

This comparison between (...) and pipelines is very easy to see if you add a bit of delay between each object outputted:

function Test-ProcessingFunction {
    param(
        [Parameter(ValueFromPipeline)]
        [int[]] $int
    )

    process {
        foreach ($i in $int) {
            "Processing $i"
        }
    }
}

$rangeDelayed = {
    0..10 | ForEach-Object { Start-Sleep -Milliseconds 200; $_ }
}

# nothing happens until `$rangeDelayed` finishes
Test-ProcessingFunction (& $rangeDelayed)
# as soon as `$rangeDelayed` outputs, it gets processed
& $rangeDelayed | Test-ProcessingFunction