Powershell: How to dynamically build array or objects?

Question

I would like to collect some information about hosts in the domain, so I am trying to write something like this:

# declare array for storing final data
$servers_list = @() 
#start with a list of servers and go through collecting the info
$servers | ForEach-Object {
  $sys = Get-WmiObject Win32_computersystem -ComputerName $_
  # create new custom object to store information
  $server_obj = New-Object –TypeName PSObject
  $server_obj | Add-Member –MemberType NoteProperty –Name Domain –Value $sys.Domain
  # .... add all other relevant info in the same manner

  # Add server object to the array
  $servers_list += $server_obj
 }

The problem with this code is that I pass a reference to the object into array and not the actual object. So by the time my loop is finished I end up with an array that contains rows that look all the same :(

Any idea how to pass actual object into array and not just a reference to it? Another thought is to dynamically declare new object instead of using $server_obj variable every time but I am not sure how to do this either...

Thanks!!!

Which version of PowerShell? You may need to modify the add-member line to $server_obj = $server_obj | Add-Member ... -PassThru. — Keith Hill
– Keith Hill, Commented Apr 18, 2014 at 22:35

Nitesh · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-19 05:13:12Z

6

You can build an array of objects and keep dynamically adding information to them like this:

#This will be your array of objects 
#In which we will keep adding objects from each computer
$Result = @() 

#start with a list of servers and go through collecting the info
$servers | ForEach-Object {

     $sys = Get-WmiObject Win32_computersystem -ComputerName $_
     # create new custom object to keep adding store information to it
     $Result += New-Object –TypeName PSObject -Property @{Domain = $sys.Domain;
                                                          Name = $sys.Name;
                                                          SystemType = $sys.SystemType
                                                         }

 }

# Get back the objects 
$Result

Where Domain,Name and SystemType are the properties that you want to associate with the objects.

answered Apr 19, 2014 at 5:13

Nitesh

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1 Comment

alikk Over a year ago

Thanks, that really helped! I tried to create a new object and added it to array in one call but I guess I was doing something wrong...

mjolinor · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-19 03:48:35Z

1

It sounds like it is passing a reference, but I don't think it's the object that's being passed as a reference, but the property values. There are discrete objects, but they all have the same reference for their property values, so they all look the same. If that's the case,

$server_obj | Add-Member –MemberType NoteProperty –Name Domain –Value "$($sys.Domain)"

should make the value a string, which is a value type and won't change.

answered Apr 19, 2014 at 3:48

mjolinor

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Comments

Thom Schumacher · Accepted Answer · 2020-07-06 22:56:00Z

1

You're making this a little harder than it should be. Pass the server names from a query, csv or list then iterate over them. Select what you want from the result.

$info = "server1", "server2" | ForEach-Object{Get-WmiObject  -Class win32_computersystem -ComputerName $_ } | Select-Object Domain, Name, Systemtype

$info[1].Domain will output domain.com

edited Jul 6, 2020 at 22:56

Thom Schumacher

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answered Jul 6, 2020 at 20:27

Beejus

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