ABOUT_SEQUENCE

Short description

Describes the Sequence keyword that runs selected activities sequentially.

Long description

The Sequence keyword runs selected workflow activities sequentially.

Workflow activities run in the order that they appear and do not run
concurrently. The Sequence keyword is only valid in a PowerShell Workflow.

The Sequence keyword is used in a Parallel script block to run selected

commands sequentially.

Because workflow activities run sequentially by default, the Sequence

keyword is only effective in a Parallel script block. If the Sequence
keyword isn't included in a Parallel script block, it's valid but
ineffective.

The Sequence script block lets you run more commands in parallel by
allowing you to run dependent commands sequentially.

Syntax

Workflow using Sequence

workflow <Verb-Noun>
{
Sequence
{
[<Activity>]
[<Activity>]
# ...
}
}

Workflow using Parallel and Sequence

workflow <Verb-Noun>
{
Parallel
{
[<Activity>]
Sequence
{
[<Activity>]
[<Activity>]
# ...
}
}
}
Detailed description

The commands in a Parallel script block can run concurrently. The order in
which they run is not determined. This feature improves the performance of
a script workflow.

You can use a Sequence script block to run selected activities

sequentially, even though the activities appear in a Parallel script block.

The activities in a Sequence script block run consecutively in the order

that they are listed. An activity in a Sequence script block starts only
after the previous activity completes.

However, when the Sequence script block appears in a Parallel script block,
the order in which the Sequence script block runs isn't determined. It
might run before, after, or concurrent with other activities in the
Parallel script block.

For example, the following workflow includes a Parallel script block that
runs activities that get processes and services on the computer. The
Parallel script block contains a Sequence script block that gets
information from a file and uses the information as input to a script.

The Get-Process, Get-Service, and hotfix-related commands are independent

of each other. The commands can run concurrently or in any order. But, the
command that gets the hotfix information must run before the command that
uses it.

workflow Test-Workflow
{
Parallel
{
Get-Process
Get-Service

Sequence
{
$Hotfix = Get-Content 'D:\HotFixes\Required.txt'
Foreach ($h in $Hotfix) {'D:\Scripts\Verify-Hotfix' -Hotfix $h}
}
}
}

See also

about_ForEach

about_ForEach-Parallel

about_Language_Keywords

about_Parallel

about_Workflows

Creating a Workflow by Using a Windows PowerShell Script