Automatically Align Two Points in Powershell

When I leave one tab space, how can I ensure that the colon is evenly distributed on all lines? (I dont want to adding one more escape tab character)

Sample Function

Write-Output "dirs`t: helloworld `
optional`t: helloworld2"

UnExpectedOutput

dirs    : helloworld
optional        : helloworld2

ExpectedOutput

dirs    : helloworld
optional: helloworld2

> Some powershell functions can do this automatically as a key : value....
> Also, I try to do it without using any powershell built-in functions (format-list, convert/to/from ... etc.)

You can use the cmdlet Format-List with a PSCustomObject to get your desired output :

[PSCustomObject]@{ dirs="helloworld"; optional="helloworld2" } | Format-List

Output :

dirs     : helloworld
optional : helloworld2

Use a formatted string. This lets you specify placeholders for the values to be inserted later.

$format = "{0,-10}: {1}"

Write-Output ($format -f "dirs", "`thelloworld")
Write-Output ($format -f "optional","`thelloworld2")

Here are some other examples of formatted strings:

$name = "Alice"
$age = 25
"My name is {0} and I am {1} years old." -f $name, $age

The above code will parse to: "My name is Alice and I am 25 years old."

$pi = 3.14159
"Pi to two decimal places is {0:N2}." -f $pi

The above code will parse to: "Pi to two decimal places is 3.14."

$date = Get-Date
"Today's date in 'MM/dd/yyyy' format is {0:MM/dd/yyyy}." -f $date

The above code will parse to: "Today's date in 'MM/dd/yyyy' format is 2023/06/28."

Cid's answer is absolutely the right one but looking at comments it seems you're interested in the logic being used by Format-List to lay down the object's properties and values as a List, so here is one way you can do it, essentially is very similar to shadow2020's answer but first getting the max padding needed.

$obj = [PSCustomObject]@{ dirs = 'helloworld'; optional = 'helloworld2' }
# Get the properties of the object
$properties = $obj.PSObject.Properties
# Get the Max Length of the property Names and add + 1
$padding = [System.Linq.Enumerable]::Max(
    [string[]] $properties.Name,
    [System.Func[string, int]] { $args[0].Length }) + 1

# Now its a simple loop adding the max padding to each property Name
# and concatenating the semi-colon + property Value
foreach ($property in $properties) {
    $property.Name.PadRight($padding) + ': ' + $property.Value
}

Outputs:

dirs     : helloworld
optional : helloworld2

If you also want coloring like how Format-List does it you can insert VT Escape Sequences:

foreach ($property in $properties) {
    "$([char] 27)[32;1m" +              # Green Format Accent
    $property.Name.PadRight($padding) + # Property Name
    ":$([char] 27)[0m "  +              # Semi-colon + Reset VT
    $property.Value                     # Property Value
}