There was a recent tweet — I believe it was a tweet, anyway — that indicated that a comment-based help synopsis, should only be as long as what’s allowable for a tweet. That’s 140 characters. With that in mind and a few minutes, I wrote this little function to check the character count in a string.

Function Measure-CharacterCount {
    [CmdletBinding()]
    Param (
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
        [string]$String,

        [int]$CharacterCount = 140
    )
    $StringCount = $String.ToCharArray().Count

    If ($StringCount -le $CharacterCount) {
        Write-Verbose -Message "The string is equal to or less than $CharacterCount characters ($StringCount)." -Verbose
    } Else {
        Write-Warning -Message "The string is longer than $CharacterCount characters ($StringCount)."
    }
}

In the example below, I’ve included two commands: one where the character count is less than 140 and one where it’s greater. On that note, let me add a third where the character count equals the default 140 character, and then 141, just to make sure this thing works…

PS > Measure-CharacterCount -String 'Today is awesome, maybe.'
VERBOSE: The string is equal to or less than 140 characters (24).
PS >
PS > Measure-CharacterCount -String 'Today is awesome, maybe. Today is awesome, maybe. Today is awesome, maybe. Today is awesome, maybe. Today is awesome, maybe. Today is awesome, maybe.'
WARNING: The string is longer than 140 characters (149).
PS > 
PS > Measure-CharacterCount -String 'Today is awesome, maybe. Today is awesome, maybe. Today is awesome, maybe. Today is awesome, maybe. Today is awesome, maybe. Today is awesom'
VERBOSE: The string is equal to or less than 140 characters (140).
PS >
PS > Measure-CharacterCount -String 'Today is awesome, maybe. Today is awesome, maybe. Today is awesome, maybe. Today is awesome, maybe. Today is awesome, maybe. Today is awesome'
WARNING: The string is longer than 140 characters (141).