Powershell prints variables out of order - powershell

Question

I'm brand new to powershell, and I'm finding a very odd behavior when I try and pass a parameter into a function:
Code
Param(
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true)][string]$vhdSourceDir,
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true)][string]$vhdDestinationDir,
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true)][array]$hypervisorList,
[int]$vhdKeep = 10
)
function getDirectoryBuildNumber ($dir) {
# Returns a number like 627c6ddeb8776914 from a path like:
# c:\BulidAgent\work\627c6ddeb8776914\packer\windows\box\hyperv\win2012r2std-cheflatest-001.box
return ( Get-ChildItem $dir | Where-Object {$_.Name -match "^[A-Za-z0-9]{16}$" } | Sort-Object LastAccessTime -Descending | Select-Object -First 1 )
}
function findBoxFile ($dir, $build) {
echo "looking for build $build at $dir "
echo "the dir is $dir and the build is $build"
# e.g c:\BulidAgent\work\627c6ddeb8776914\packer\windows\box\hyperv\win2012r2std-cheflatest-001.box
return ( Get-ChildItem $dir\$build\packer\windows\box\hyperv\ | Where-Object Extension -in '.box' | Sort-Object LastAccessTime -Descending | Select-Object -First 1 )
}
Function Main ()
{
$THEBUILD=getDirectoryBuildNumber($vhdSourceDir)
echo "THEBUILD is $THEBUILD"
findBoxFile($vhdSourceDir,$THEBUILD)
#echo "BOXFILE is $BOXFILE"
}
main
Problem
Here are the parameters that I call the script with:
.\boxMove.ps1 -vhdSourceDir C:\BuildAgent\work -vhdDestinationDir e:\ -hypervisorList 'foobar'
Here is the output it generates
THEBUILD is 527c6ddeb8776914
looking for build at C:\BuildAgent\work 527c6ddeb8776914
the dir is C:\BuildAgent\work 527c6ddeb8776914 and the build is
Get-ChildItem : Cannot find path 'C:\BuildAgent\work 527c6ddeb8776914\packer\windows\box\hyperv\' because it does not exist.
The parameters show up out of order. For example, the phrase 'looking for build should appear like so"
looking for build 527c6ddeb8776914 at C:\BuildAgent\work
but it shows up as
looking for build at C:\BuildAgent\work 527c6ddeb8776914
Also the phrase 'the dir is..' should read
the dir is C:\BuildAgent\work and the build is 527c6ddeb8776914
but it reads as
the dir is C:\BuildAgent\work 527c6ddeb8776914 and the build is
Why is powershell not printing the strings in order?

Answer 1

When you pass parameters to functions do not encapsulate them in parentheses and where multiple parameters are being passed, they should not be comma separated, instead a space should be used to separate them.
For instance:
findBoxFile($vhdSourceDir,$THEBUILD)
should read:
findBoxFile $vhdSourceDir $THEBUILD
Then you'll find that this removes the issue you were encountering with the incorrectly ordered output.

Answer 2

Firstly, clean up your function definitions. Instead of
function (params){code}
you should use
function
{
Param ($Param1,$param2)
code
}
Also, when accepting an array as a param, instead of using [array], specify the array type, (probably string in your case), so that would be (line 4)
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true)][string[]]$hypervisorList,
It's hard do say exactly why the script fails, but I'd start by cleaning up the obvious issues and test again.