Creating and passing an array from one function to another [duplicate] - powershell

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Boolean variable gets returned as an Object[]
(2 answers)
Closed 3 years ago.
What I'm trying to do is make it so I can create the array and check it in a single a single function as I call it in other functions so it'd be easier to just add $list = GetUserList instead of verifying the $list each time I plan on calling the GetUserList function.
https://pastebin.com/6h4MJH9n
What works:
function GetUserList {
$name = Read-Host "Please enter the users name (multiple users can be separated by commas)"
$names = $name.Split(",")
for ( $i = 0; $i -lt $names.Count; $i++ ) {
$firstn = $names[$i].Trim().Split(" ")[0]
$lastn = $names[$i].Trim().Split(" ")[-1]
$ulist += #([PSCustomObject]#{
First = "$firstn";
Last = "$lastn"
})
}
return $ulist
}
function UserList {
do {
$userlist = GetUserList
$userlist | Format-Table -AutoSize -Wrap
$again = Read-Host "Is this correct? (y/n)"
} until ( $again -eq "y" )
$userlist | ForEach-Object {
"First: $($_.First)"
"Last: $($_.Last)"
}
}
UserList
What doesn't work:
function GetUserList {
do {
$ulist = #()
$name = Read-Host "Please enter the users name (multiple users can be separated by commas)"
$names = $name.Split(",")
for ( $i = 0; $i -lt $names.Count; $i++ ) {
$firstn = $names[$i].Trim().Split(" ")[0]
$lastn = $names[$i].Trim().Split(" ")[-1]
$ulist += #([PSCustomObject]#{
First = "$firstn";
Last = "$lastn"
})
}
$ulist | Format-Table -AutoSize -Wrap
$again = Read-Host "Is this correct? (y/n)"
} until ( $again -eq "y" )
return $ulist
}
function UserList {
$userlist = GetUserList
$userlist | ForEach-Object {
"First: $($_.First)"
"Last: $($_.Last)"
}
}
UserList
I don't get an errors, it's just the code that doesn't work completely skips the for loop and I have no idea why.

Answer 1

the problem is situated in $ulist | Format-Table -AutoSize -wrap since you're not either
storing the formatted content in a variable,
nore sending the formatted content to the PowerShell host for printing (as stated in #Lee_Daily's comment in the OP)
PowerShell will return the formatted content to the output stream. Additionally to the formatted content you're also sending the content of $ulist to the output stream (via the Return $ulist statement). Based on that $userlist (via $userlist = GetUserList) contains the $ulist content PLUS the formatted $ulist content.
These can also be seen when debugging your code (see Set-PsBreakPoint):
[DBG]:> $userlist
First Last
----- ----
user 1
user 2
user 3
First Last
----- ----
user 1
user 2
user 3
As #Lee_Daily suggests change the line $ulist | Format-Table -AutoSize -wrap to $ulist | Format-Table -AutoSize -wrap | Out-Host. Piping to Out-Host will prevent that the output of Format-Table is written to the output-stream.
Further suggested reading:
about_Redirection
PowerShell streams devblog