Powershell function with input as two params that are arrays

Question

I've tried searching for this problem but haven't found anything helpful.

I'm trying to get a Powershell Function to loop over an array of strings. My twist is I'm trying to add a second array. The first array has the days of the week. The second array is a timestamp for example 2015-01-19

What I have working so far is below. I'm aware that using Get-Date then formatting that to what works (by adding and formatting the results) might be easier, I'm open to suggestions. -Thanks, I really do appreciate the assistance!

Function My-Test{
    param(
        [string[]]$arr,
        [string[]]$arr2
    )
    Foreach($day in $arr){
        "$day is the best day to read something."
    }
    Foreach($var2 in $arr2){
        echo $arr2
    }
}

$days = @("Monday","Tuesday","Wednesday","Thursday","Friday","Saturday","Sunday")
$var2 = @("1","2","3","4","5","6","7")

My-Test -arr $days -arr2 $var2

Test below

$array = @(
 ("Monday","Tuesday","Wednesday","Thursday","Friday","Saturday","Sunday"),
 ("2015-01-01","2015-01-02","2015-01-03","2015-01-04","2015-01-05","2015-01-06","2015-01-07")
 )
$array[0][2]

The $array does not return the two properties, it returns Wednesday

You should simplify the code to isolate the question you're asking. The problem you've stated has nothing to do with IE. — Mike Shepard
– Mike Shepard, Commented Jan 20, 2015 at 4:55
Also, show what you've tried with the second array parameter. — Mike Shepard
– Mike Shepard, Commented Jan 20, 2015 at 4:55
No, you are correct IE has nothing to do with this question however it's part of my script. Question has been edited. — user4317867
– user4317867, Commented Jan 20, 2015 at 5:27
The code you posted doesn't error, and it gives reasonable output. What output were you expecting? — Mike Shepard
– Mike Shepard, Commented Jan 20, 2015 at 5:37
In your second Foreach, you should echo $var2, you are echoing the entire array. — Micky Balladelli
– Micky Balladelli, Commented Jan 20, 2015 at 5:54

Micky Balladelli · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-20 08:00:29Z

1

Answering the followup question.

You could return the two values (I assume $arr and $arr2) in either a single array or in an array containing two arrays:

Function My-Test{
    param(
        [string[]]$arr,
        [string[]]$arr2 
    )
    Foreach($day in $arr){
       write-host "$day is the best day to read something."   
    }
    Foreach($var2 in $arr2){
        write-host $var2
    }

    $ret = $arr+$arr2
    return $ret
}

$days = @("Monday","Tuesday","Wednesday","Thursday","Friday","Saturday","Sunday")
$var2 = @("1","2","3","4","5","6","7")

$ret = My-Test -arr $days -arr2 $var2

Then $ret.Count is 14 and $ret contains the combined $arr + $arr2

Other possibility is to create an array of arrays, or a two dimentional array:

$ret = @()
$ret += ,$arr
$ret += ,$arr2
return $ret

In this case $ret[0] contains the weekdays, and $ret[0][0] is Monday, $ret[0][1] is Tuesday, etc. and $ret[1] contains the second array.

PS. You don't need to write return you could simply write $ret as it's implicit that you are returning that value, but it's simpler to explain with that example in my opinion. In fact you don't even need to create a $ret variable, you could just write

@($arr,$arr2)

EDIT

You can only access elements in an array one at a time.

Lets look at your new multidimentional array

$array = @(
 ("Monday","Tuesday","Wednesday","Thursday","Friday","Saturday","Sunday"),
 ("2015-01-01","2015-01-02","2015-01-03","2015-01-04","2015-01-05","2015-01-06","2015-01-07")
 )

Let's see what $array[0] contains:

Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday

So $array[0][0] is the first element of this array, Monday, $array[0][1] is the second, Tuesday, etc.

If we look at the second array:

$array[1]

It contains:

The first element for the second array is $array[1][0], 2015-01-01, the second is $array[1][1], 2015-01-02, etc.

edited Jan 20, 2015 at 8:00

answered Jan 20, 2015 at 7:22

Micky Balladelli

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5 Comments

user4317867 Over a year ago

I tried the multidimensional array approach but this quickly went over my head. Edited question with multidimensional array code.

user4317867 Over a year ago

And that means I could do this ($array[0][4] + " " + $array[1][4]) to get the output Friday 2015-01-05

user4317867 Over a year ago

OK I've got stuck adding this to an existing script. This script takes a T-SQL query and outputs the results as an Excel spreadsheet. I'm trying to run 7 queries and create 1 spreadsheet containing 7 worksheets. I just worked out the code to run the 7 queries but I get 7 spreadsheets. I've got the code to add a new worksheet to an existing workbook but can't figure out how to pass two arrays on two parameters to this function.

Micky Balladelli Over a year ago

I would recommend writing a new question, and provide an up to date version of your script, and the desired results.

user4317867 Over a year ago

Things are working as is however I'm running into the Zombie Excel proc that won't close. If you open the spreadsheet then close it, it'll close but I want the script to do so (Powershell!!! You clean up after yourself!) but the code is far from optimized. But I'm curious to see what to community thinks.

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