What does the # (hash) mean in this type name?

Question

I can only understand the type as far as SoftwareIdentity . I'm not sure what SoftwareIdentity#GetPackage signifies.

Get-Package | Get-Member | Select-Object -Property TypeName -Unique
 
TypeName
--------
Microsoft.PackageManagement.Packaging.SoftwareIdentity#GetPackage

Answer 1

In this case, Microsoft.PackageManagement.Packaging.SoftwareIdentity#GetPackage is just the fully-qualified type name for the GetPackage public class (used by the Get-Package cmdlet) within Microsoft's PackageManagement module: reference 1

The default display view defined for GetPackage provides Name , Version , Source , and ProviderName properties: reference 2 . This view definition can be seen in-use for the display output of Example 1 of the Get-Package cmdlet.

The Get-Package cmdlet returns an array of SoftwareIdentity objects: reference 3 , explaining part of the TypeName used.

Historically, using WMI as a back-drop, Microsoft might expose type names using this format to separate wrapper classes vs. underlying namespaces and class names of an object -- which you may discover in other WMI-based coding efforts.