Q. Why can’t I pipe Format-Table to Export-CSV?

A. You can pipe Format-Table to Export-CSV, but it won’t be very pretty. All of the Format cmdlets produce a special kind of formatting objects that tell PowerShell how to construct a visual display. These objects aren’t really useful to any cmdlet except an Out cmdlet. That’s why I like to follow the rule “Format Right,” meaning the Format cmdlet should be the last, or right-most, cmdlet on any command line. It can be the second-last cmdlet only if it’s followed by an Out cmdlet.

The good news is that there’s really no reason to pipe Format-Table to Export-CSV. Once something is in a table format, it can’t become a comma-separated value (CSV) file. However, before you put it into a table format, you can use Export-CSV just fine:

Get-Service | Export-CSV

The reason a lot of people want to throw Format-Table in there is to limit the number of properties being exported:

Get-Service | Format-Table Name,DisplayName,Status | Export-CSV

That won’t work, but you can accomplish the task by using Select-Object instead:

Get-Service | Select-Object Name,DisplayName,Status | Export-CSV

Select-Object is able to pick and choose specific properties without changing the objects into those special formatting objects in the way that the Format cmdlet does.