Filter the output of a command as if it was text

Get-Service | Select-String -Pattern "sql"

This works just like grep. And you can even sort:

Get-Service | Select-String -Pattern "sql" | sort

Just forget it :o)

Outputs are objects. You are right, and you are going to use this.

So mjolinor has the shortest answer, but for your knowledge just test:

Get-Service | Get-Member

So you will understand that

Get-Service | Where-Object {$_.name -match ".*sql.*" }

also works, and there you've got your text as a property of the object.