powershell.exe -file string array as parameter

Question

I'm actually writing a plugin with powershell for a monitoring solution.

This monitoring solution runs the powershell skript from the command line cmd.

One of the input parameters is a string array but it looks like cmd can't hand over the array to the powershell.

Here a example script that I've wrote to explain you the problem:

param (
    [array]$myarray
)

Write-Host 'My array is a ' $myarray.GetType()
Write-Host 'How much value do I have in my array?' $myarray.count
Write-Host 'My content is' $myarray

When I run this script from a powershell console my output is right:

.\Test-Script.ps1 -myarray bla1, bla2

My array is a  System.Object[]
How much value do I have in my array? 2
My content is bla1 bla2

now I run the same from the cmd and the array is not interpreted as it should:

powershell.exe -file Test-Script.ps1 -myarray bla1, bla2

My array is a  System.Object[]
How much value do I have in my array? 1
My content is bla1,

My question is now how to commit the array to the powershell script? I have tried quite every thing.... Escaping with ^ , brackets, sing quotes , double quotes and so on. but nothing helped...

I am thankful for every hint :)

Write-Verbose is a better choice than Write-Host which Jeffery Snover says is almost always wrong. jsnover.com/blog/2013/12/07/write-host-considered-harmful — lit
– lit, Commented Mar 28, 2017 at 21:31

webward · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-28 21:17:35Z

2

When calling the script from CMD, do:

powershell.exe -command ".\Test-Script.ps1 -myarray bla1, bla2"

Results in:

My array is a  System.Object[]
How much value do I have in my array? 2
My content is bla1 bla2

From my experience, using the command argument rather than the file argument, then wrapping the entire command in quotes causes things to behave more like you'd expect them to as if you were running from the PoSh console.

Also, if you want to make your param statement specific to a string, or array of strings, you can write the statement like:

param (
    [string[]]$myarray
)
Write-Host 'My array is a ' $myarray.GetType()
Write-Host 'How much value do I have in my array?' $myarray.count
Write-Host 'My content is' $myarray

The result is:

My array is a  System.String[]
How much value do I have in my array? 2
My content is bla1 bla2

As you have it now, it will accept an array with elements of any type, depending on your application, you may want it to only accept arrays with elements of a specific type. Defining an array like [typename[]] specifies that it's an array with elements of typename.

answered Mar 28, 2017 at 21:17

webward

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3 Comments

brunofernandez Over a year ago

using -command is not an option for me. Because of the return codes that -command can't interpret...

webward Over a year ago

Are you referring to using something like exit 1 in your PoSh script, or something else?

webward Over a year ago

Use this in CMD powershell.exe -command ".\Test-Script.ps1 -myarray bla1,bla2; exit $LASTEXITCODE" Source was from a different SO post.

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