Can we show the nested objects in Powershell?

Question

I am adding a .NET type to Powershell session using Add-Type and then creating object of that type using New-Object. This is done as follows:
Add-Type -AssemblyName OuterObj
$a = New-Object OuterObj
Object of type OuterObj is successfully created. Now .NET type $a has a field named innerObj which is object of another .NET type innerObject. So I add "innerObject" .NET type and create an instance using New-Object.
Add-Type -AssemblyName innerObject
$b = New-Object innerObject
Object of type innerObject is also successfully created. Now I do as follows:
$a.innerObj = $b
Now when I print $a, it shows something like this:
innerObj : innerObject
Thus it does not display the contents of innerObject by default. When I go and explore, innerObj has the fields. I know Powershell does not show the nested objects by default but instead just shows their types, but is there a way I can specify that what
level of nesting of objects powershell should show by default? Is there something to specify to show 1 or 2 levels of nested objects?
Any help would be highly appreciated.

Answer 1

The simplest approach, if you're writing these C# classes yourself, is probably to override the class's ToString method.  That way it will just display that way by default in PowerShell, without any extra effort on the scripter's part.
If that's not an option, then you can write PowerShell code to accomplish something similar.  Here are examples of both:
# C# ToString version:
Add-Type -TypeDefinition @'
public class innerObject
public string Property1;
public string Property2;
public override string ToString()
return string.Format("Property1: {0}, Property2: {1}", Property1, Property2);
public class OuterObj
public innerObject innerObj;
$a = New-Object OuterObj
$b = New-Object innerObject -Property @{ Property1 = 'First Property'; Property2 = 'Second Property' }
$a.innerObj = $b
$a | Format-List
# PowerShell version using constructed property values with
# Format-List.
Add-Type -TypeDefinition @'
public class innerObject
public string Property1;
public string Property2;
public class OuterObj
public innerObject innerObj;
$a = New-Object OuterObj
$b = New-Object innerObject -Property @{ Property1 = 'First Property'; Property2 = 'Second Property' }
$a.innerObj = $b
$a | Format-List -Property @{ Label = 'innerObj'; Expression = { "Property1: $($_.innerObj.Property1), Property2: $($_.innerObj.Property2)" } }