Powershell Read-host after Write-host - powershell

Question

I'm stuck in a probably dumb problem :(
Basically I have a function that write some output, and I would wait before exiting the script with a Read-Host command after the output of the function.
Here you are the code:
Function Get-FileMetaData {
<# modified script from:
NAME: Get-FileMetaData
AUTHOR: ed wilson, msft
LASTEDIT: 01/24/2014 14:08:24
Http://www.ScriptingGuys.com
Requires -Version 2.0
#>
Param($folders)
$tagList = #()
$tagListUnique = #()
foreach($folder in $folders) {
$i = 18 # attribute for Tags
$objShell = New-Object -ComObject Shell.Application
$objFolder = $objShell.namespace($folder.FullName)
foreach ($file in $objFolder.items()) {
if($objFolder.getDetailsOf($File, $i)) {
$objEntry = New-Object System.Object
$objEntry | Add-Member -type NoteProperty -name File -value $file.Path
$objEntry | Add-Member -type NoteProperty -name Tags -value $objFolder.getDetailsOf($File, $i)
$tagList += $objEntry
$tagListUnique += ($objFolder.getDetailsOf($File, $i) -split ";").trim()
}
}
}
Write-Output $tagList
Write-Output ""
Write-Output "unique tags"
Write-Output "-----------"
$tagListUnique | Sort-Object -unique
Read-Host "Press ENTER to exit"
}
$baseFolder = "C:\MyPictures"
Write-Host ""
Write-Host "Base folder: " $baseFolder
Get-FileMetaData -folder (Get-ChildItem $baseFolder -Recurse -Directory)
Basically it prints out the final statement "Press ENTER to exit" before the $tagList array.
I would like exactly the opposite, as in the order written in the code. With my limited ps skills, I understood there is something related in the different management of output "stream" and the input, but I cannot figure out how to "flush" all the output before it writes in the host.
Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Not sure what the technical difference is between Write-Host and Out-Host, but I got around it by piping the customobject ($oOptions) to Out-Host. For example:
Write-Output "Set subscription:"
$oSubscriptions = Get-AzureRmSubscription
If($Subscriptions.count -gt 1)
{
Write-Verbose "Multiple subscriptions found. "
$i=1
$oOptions = #()
$oSubscriptions | ForEach-Object{
$oOptions += [pscustomobject]#{
Item = $i
SubscriptionName = $_.SubscriptionName
}
$i++
}
$oOptions | Out-Host
$selection = Read-Host -Prompt "Please make a selection"
$Selected = $oOptions | Where-Object{$_.Item -eq $selection}
$ActiveSubscription = Select-AzureRmSubscription -SubscriptionName $Selected.SubscriptionName
$ActiveSubscription
Write-Output "Subscription '$($ActiveSubscription.Subscription.SubscriptionName)' active."
}
else
{
$Subscriptions | Select-AzureRmSubscription | Out-Null
}
Hope that helps.

Answer 2

Try this:
Function Get-FileMetaData {
Write-Output ([PSCustomObject]#{Value="this function is executed"}) | Out-String
}
Write-Output "Before function execution"
Get-FileMetaData
Read-Host "Press ENTER to continue"
Putting the Read-Host AFTER the execution of your function, will make it output everything to the console, THEN wait for the Read-Host to be done.
Result:
I've updated the code above to include the [PSCustomObject] to the Write-Output, and by adding a Out-String at the end, everything works fine for me. Please let me know if this works!