PowerShell: Adding "rows" to custom object - powershell

Question

I want to create an object in powershell that stores information about the state of a script. I can do this:
$myScriptObject =
#("status", "Selected Operation(s):", "None"),
("status", "Current Operation:", "None"),
("status", "Current Step:", "Prompting for Script Action" ),
("test", "This is just for testing", "1,2,3") `
| ForEach-Object {[pscustomobject]#{kind = $_[0]; name = $_[1]; value
= $_[2]}}
And that works:
$myScriptObject
kind name value
---- ---- -----
status Selected Operation(s): None
status Current Operation: None
status Current Step: Prompting for Script Action
test This is just for testing 1,2,3
...and I can even do this:
foreach($myObject in $myScriptObject) {
if ($myObject.kind -eq 'status') {
Write-Host $myObject.name $myObject.value
}
}
which outputs this:
Selected Operation(s): None
Current Operation: None
Current Step: Prompting for Script Action
My questions are:
1. how do I add something like the following to $myScriptObject:
-kind "ActionMenuChoice" -Name "Do This" -Value 1
-kind "ActionMenuChoice" -Name "Do That" -Value 2
How do I change items already in the object?
status Current Step: Prompting for Script Action
to
status Current Step: Prompting for Login
Or am I going about it all wrong? The idea came from the difficulty in returning numerous variables back from a function, and I read using objects is much better to pass back and forth in functions, and found using objects to be much easier to keep track of and to a certain extent manipulate.
Cheers!

Answer 1

If we are keeping your current object array structure, you can create $myScriptObject as an generic list type by casting [collections.generic.list[object]]. Then you can use the .Add() method to add items to your collection.
[collections.generic.list[object]]$myScriptObject =
#("status", "Selected Operation(s):", "None"),
("status", "Current Operation:", "None"),
("status", "Current Step:", "Prompting for Script Action" ),
("test", "This is just for testing", "1,2,3") |
ForEach-Object {[pscustomobject]#{kind = $_[0]; name = $_[1]; value = $_[2]}}
[void]$myScriptObject.add([pscustomobject]#{"Kind" = "ActionMenuChoice"; "Name" = "Do This"; "Value" = 1})
[void]$myScriptObject.add([pscustomobject]#{"Kind" = "ActionMenuChoice"; "Name" = "Do That"; "Value" = 2})
If you want to update an item property in that collection, you will first need to find the object/item within the collection and then access the property you want to update.
($myScriptObject | Where-Object {$_.name -eq 'Current Step:'}).value = "Prompting for Login"
Where-Object can provide the condition needed to locate the target object. Then you can use the object.property syntax to access the property. With PowerShell objects, you can do direct assignment syntax (object.property = value) to update the property value.

Answer 2

I would use a datatable instead:
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Collections
$dt = New-Object system.Data.DataTable
[void]$dt.Columns.Add('kind',[string]::empty.GetType() )
[void]$dt.Columns.Add('name',[string]::empty.GetType() )
[void]$dt.Columns.Add('value',[string]::empty.GetType() )
# Add new rows:
$newRow = $dt.NewRow()
$newRow.kind = 'status'
$newRow.name = 'Selected Operation(s):'
$newRow.value = 'None'
[void]$dt.Rows.Add( $newRow )
$newRow = $dt.NewRow()
$newRow.kind = 'status'
$newRow.name = 'Selected'
$newRow.value = 'None'
[void]$dt.Rows.Add( $newRow )
# Find row(s):
$rows = $dt.Select("kind = 'status'")
"Found:"
$dt
# Change first row by condition:
$rows = $dt.Select("kind = 'status'")
$rows[0].value = 'test'
[void]$dt.AcceptChanges()
"Changed one row:"
$dt
# Change all rows:
$rows = $dt.Select("")
$rows | % { $_.value = 'new' }
[void]$dt.AcceptChanges()
"Changed all:"
$dt
# Change all rows by condition:
$rows = $dt.Select("name = 'Selected'")
$rows | % { $_.value = 'newer' }
[void]$dt.AcceptChanges()
"Changed by condition:"
$dt