Receive array with one array element from function

Question

Good day to all! I have some function which splits an input array to $partitionCount partitions. Return value should be an array of arrays. If $partitionCount equals to 1 you dont need to perform some split logic and you can return input array itself. In that case powershell flattens return result into simple array (not array of arrays as required).

I have tried following approaches found with Stackoverflow and other resources:

return @($input) flattens result into single array
return @(,$input) also flattens result into single array
return @($input, @()) it works but uses empty array to prevent flattening, bad one
$bucket = @(Split-Array $input 1) place an array directive in call site, works fine, but you should place it in each call, which is very confusing and not obvious

Is there any right way to handle that case?

Mathias R. Jessen · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-24 09:02:19Z

1

To prevent flattening of a single-item array, prepend a comma to the array you're trying to return (,@($value)):

function Get-SingleArray {
    param($InputArray)

    return ,@($InputArray[0])
}

Demonstration:

PS C:\> $a = Get-SingleArray 2,3,4,5
PS C:\> $a[0] -eq 2
True
PS C:\> $a.GetType.FullName
System.Object[]

answered Jun 24, 2015 at 9:02

Mathias R. Jessen

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1 Comment

Nogard Over a year ago

It seems that it does not working: function Return-Array([array]$data) { return ,@($data) } $a = Return-Array @(1,2,3) $a.Length #3

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