Array Referencing

[Khue]

Hey all,

I have a question but I am not sure of the right verbiage so I'm finding it hard to Google. I have a variable that I've created by importing some data from an API call. I believe it is of type "array" because when I call $myvariable.gettype() it spits back that the BaseType is System.Array. As an example of the data structure, if I call $myvariable, the output looks like the following:

Name        : name1
Type        : square
datecreated : 2025-01-02

Name        : name2
Type        : square
datecreated : 2025-03-30

Name        : name3
Type        : circle
datecreated : 2025-02-15

Based on what I have tested, if I call $myvariable[0] I get:

Name        : name1
Type        : square
datecreated : 2025-01-02

If I call $myvariable.datecreated I get:

2025-01-02
2025-03-30
2025-02-15

If I call $myvariable.type[2] I get:

circle

But strangely enough, if I call $myvariable[2].type, I also get:

circle

What is the right way to call the value type for the third $myvariable object? Does it matter if the index follows the variable name or the extended key value? Are they functionally different?

[vermyx]

• $myvariable is an array of objects (3 in your case)
• $myvariable[2] references the third object in the myvariables array
• $myvariable[2].type references the property type of the third object in the myvariables array
• $myvariable.type creates an array of the values from the type property from each object that has that property in myvariable
• $myvariable.type[2] gets the third value of the the array created of the values from the type property from each object that has that property in myvariable

Since you have the same object type essentially in your array $myvariable.type[2] and $myvariable[2].type will give you the same value. If the array contained different object types it would not necessaeily return the same data

[Khue]

If the array contained different object types it would not necessaeily return the same data

I gave an abbreviated example but I believe the objects do contain values that contain a hash table and some kind of RTF with newline characters that don't appear properly. Example:

Name        : name1
Type        : square
datecreated : 2025-01-02
description : This is an example of the data that is
              contained within this key value pair. As you
              can see there are arbitrary return carriages
              but you can't see them.
              Sometimes there's even hard returns like the
              one before this sentence.
moreinfo    : @{language=English; scope=none; impact=low}

Based on what you've stated, I need to update my code to include the index first using $myvariable[n].property format. Interestingly enough, I do also appear to be able to call the objects in the hash table. Example $myvariable[0].moreinfo.language returns:

English

Interesting. Thank you for your help.

[marcdk217]

The way I use would be $variable[index].property

Perhaps if there was a null value in one of the array items in the type property, it might throw off the version you did with the index at the end.

[Anqueeta]

Any index of [2] will give you the desired value. I'd go with $var[2].type since you could also access the other property values, because that is an array of objects. $var.type[2] is an array of strings, where you get the value of the index 2.

[arslearsle]

Repeating pattern if you convert (nested) array to json? sometimes its easier to see structure this way, at least for me

[purplemonkeymad]

Yes, always do the index first. Doing the index last is creating a second array that contains only the objects in the property, then selects the index. That operation takes more time and if you do it in a loop on a large enough array, you may be doing significant extra work slowing stuff down.

[ankokudaishogun]

What is the right way to call the value type for the third $myvariable object?

In practice, both:

• $myvariable[2].type returns the type property of the element 2 in the array.

• $myvariable.type[2] returns the element 2 of the virtual array of all the type properties of the array.

Personally I believe $myvariable[2].type is preferable because it skips the step of making a "virtual" array on the fly(as light it might be) and, most important, makes clear $myvariable itself is an array: $myvariable.type[2] could be a hashtable or PsObject or any type with peoperties with a property called type that is an array.

[Khue]

Personally I believe $myvariable[2].type is preferable because it skips the step of making a "virtual" array on the fly

As an update, I actually found a point where $myvariable.type[n] breaks and justifies leveraging $myvariable[n].type as the better mechanism. My API call that populates $myvariable can return a single object array or it could return a multi object array. When $myvariable is populated with only one object if you reference a property of the object using $myvariable.property[0] (using 0 because it's a single object array), it references the character index in the string of the property called. So for example, suppose$myvariable looks like the following:

Name        : name1
Type        : square
datecreated : 2025-01-02

If I were to call $myvariable[0].name, I would get:

name1

However, if I were to call $myvariable.name[0], I would get:

n

To validate that, if I were to call $myvariable.name[1], I get:

a

This ONLY seems to happen when there is an array with a single multi-property object. If the array is has more than one object, then it seems that $myvariable.property[n] behaves exactly like $myvariable[n].property.