PowerShell collapses string array into single string when stored as second dimension

Question

For some reason PowerShell takes an array of strings and converts it into a single string (or perhaps a character array?) when it is set as the second dimension of a two dimensional array:

Here is the initial output of the $path array:

PS C:\Users\crd> $path
C:
Program Files (x86)
Common Files
Adobe
ARM
1.0
armsvc.exe

The path[0] array entry is a string value:

PS C:\Users\crd> $path[0]
C:

Now we set the first value in the $test[] array equal to our string array:

PS C:\Users\crd> $test[0]=$path

You can see that the entire string array has been merged:

PS C:\Users\crd> $test[0]
C: Program Files (x86) Common Files Adobe ARM 1.0 armsvc.exe

Why is this? I'm sure Microsoft documented this somewhere but I'm having a hard time finding it.

I would expect the output to remain unchanged. Note the following output:

PS C:\Users\chris> $test[0][0]
C

I would like this to be the same as the $path[0] output which was C:. Why is this merge occurring?

Where does $path come from? What type is it? Why do you want to work with multi dimensional arrays? — Martin Brandl
– Martin Brandl, Commented Jun 14, 2016 at 15:09
What it $test, how is this different from the question you asked yesterday and why do you keep wanting to re-appropriate and reuse the same variables? :) — Mathias R. Jessen
– Mathias R. Jessen, Commented Jun 14, 2016 at 15:20
Why not use a hashtable or a powershell object and store the path a string then split it when you need to process? — jkdba
– jkdba, Commented Jun 14, 2016 at 15:20

Kelly Davis · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-14 16:55:12Z

0

you changed your hash of items into a single string value. works as expected.

answered Sep 14, 2017 at 16:55

Kelly Davis

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