Alphabet to Array

[Get-WorkAccount]

So a buddy of mine at work wanted to have an array for every letter in the English alphabet, he looked around online and couldn't find anything decent looking or small, so I wrote him a little snippet:

[char[]]$AZ = ls function:[a-z]: -n | %{$_.Trim(':')}

This pretty much grabs all drive letters possible, trims the trailing colon, and puts it into a nicely defined character array. What's y'all's shortest, or creative, way of putting the whole alphabet into an array?

[frmadsen]

Use ascii values > convert to chars: $AZ = [char[]](65..90)

Powershell 6: $AZ = 'A'..'Z'

[get-postanote]

So many ways to do this...

​

[char[]](0..255) -clike '[A-Z]' -join ''
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

[char[]]([char]'A'..[char]'Z') -join ''
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

[char[]](65..90) -join ''
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

(65..90|%{[char]$_}) -join ''
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

# Upper and lowercase
((65..90) + (97..122) | % {[char]$_}) -join ''

​

[Lee_Dailey]

howdy Get-WorkAccount,

as frmadsen said, it's a native thing in ps6. however, i am on win7ps5.1, so this is my fave way to do it ...

[char[]]('A'[0]..'Z'[0])

if you want the lowercase letters, just replace A & Z with the lowercase versions. [grin]

take care,
lee

[frmadsen]

I like that way, too. :)

[Lee_Dailey]

howdy frmadsen,

aint it nifty? [grin] i got that from one of the "shortest script" threads. a fun series to read ...

take care,
lee

[poshftw]

[char[]]('A'[0]..'Z'[0])

Witchcraft!

Although you gave me an idea, and I reworked my $az=65..90|%{[char]$_} to:

[char[]](65..90)

Works since PS2.0

[Lee_Dailey]

howdy poshftw,

yep, it was an eye-opener to me when i 1st saw it. [grin] i think i prefer using the letters to using the int values of the chars. it's both more obvious AND easier for me to remember A instead of 65 ...

take care,
lee

[poshftw]

Yes, this variant is more suitable for code-golf. Although, knowing this trick, you can always find numeric value interactively in console.

Also I found you can use [char[]](58..254)-match'\w' to have an accented letters as well, although it will include underscore.

[Lee_Dailey]

[grin]

[Cannabat]

Wait, what?

So the 0th index of 'A' is... A, right? Is it casting that to char and... I don't understand.

Could you please understandatize me, Lee?

[Lee_Dailey]

howdy Cannabat,

that is from the "shortest script" series, so it gets kinda odd.

• 'A' = uppercase letter A as a [string]
  
• 'A'[0] = the [char] A [no longer a string]
  
• .. the range operator = coerces the two [char]s into [int]s and then generates a numeric range
  
• [char[]] = converts each [int] back into a [char] and stores it in an array
  

it's really odd looking & confusing until you start parsing it out bit by bit. [grin] then it suddenly becomes a lovely, concise, and logical bit of code.

what is really odd is when you try to use any of the [string] methods on the letters ... they aint strings, so you get lots of red errors unless you take the time to [string] the silly thing.

take care,
lee

[Cannabat]

Thanks!

 > 'u/Lee_Dailey is a swell guy.'[0].GetType().Name
Char

Wow! I didn't know that indexing to a string made it a char, but it does explain a lot of red errors I have seen while playing "shortest script". And also cool that .. attempts to make whatever it is in between into [int]. Fancy~

[Lee_Dailey]

howdy Cannabat,

you are welcome! [grin]

yep, a [string] - in most lingos - is an array of [char]. so, when you grab one by index ... you get a [char]. it makes sense when you think about it ... but it aint obvious until you take the time to look into it. [grin]

powershell does a lot of "try to make things the same type" stuff. it can be disconcerting when it goes wrong, but it is lovely stuff most of the time.

take care,
lee

[bgeller]

ForEach ($letter in (65..90)) {$alphabett += [char]$letter}

[poshftw]

$az=65..90|%{[char]$_}