Powershell Select-Object how to get array of values

Question

I am trying to delete contents of few folders. What I have:

$Config = @{
    InstallPath = 'C:\Program Files\App'
    SubPaths = @('www\app1', 'www\app2', 'www\app3')
}

And here is the code to get contents:

$Config.SubPaths | Select-Object { Join-Path $Config.InstallPath $_ } | Get-ChildItem

But it doesn't work, because Get-ChildItem receives object like below:

@{ Join-Path $Config.InstallPath $_ =C:\Program Files\App\www\app1}

Error:

Get-ChildItem : Cannot find drive. A drive with the name '@{ Join-Path $Config.InstallPath $_ =C' does not exist.
At line:1 char:85
+ ... elect-Object { Join-Path $Config.InstallPath $_ } | Get-ChildItem
+                                                             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (@{ Join-Path $C...stallPath $_ =D:String) [Get-ChildItem], DriveNotFoun
   dException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : DriveNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetChildItemCommand

How can I convert result of Select-Object to simple array of strings? Or any other approach to make code better?

$Config.SubPaths | ForEach-Object { Join-Path $Config.InstallPath $_ } | Get-ChildItem — Matt
– Matt, Commented Oct 6, 2017 at 13:30

Matt · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-06 13:44:25Z

1

The results you are getting are because you made a new object with the the literal property Join-Path $Config.InstallPath $_. Instead...

$Config.SubPaths | ForEach-Object { Join-Path $Config.InstallPath $_ } | Get-ChildItem

You are not trying to select a property of a single subpath but generate a string from each of the SubPaths. Using Foreach-object instead to iterate over the collection should get you the results you are looking for.

While you could create custom objects and properties using calculated properties I figure this is not the direction you are going for. But to answer the question in the title you could have done this:

$Config.SubPaths | 
    Select-Object @{Name="Path";Expression={Join-Path $Config.InstallPath $_}} | 
    Get-ChildItem

Get-ChildItem should bind to the path property of the new object were are making

edited Oct 6, 2017 at 13:44

answered Oct 6, 2017 at 13:31

Matt

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1 Comment

Zergatul Over a year ago

Thanks, that's exacly what I looking for.

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