Add all dirPaths open in windows explorer to an array

PowerShell Help
1

I’m coming as a newbie to PowerShell from python.
I found the following snippet that, among other things, in effect, lists all open dirs in windows explorer:

(New-Object -ComObject ‘Shell.Application’).Windows() | ForEach-Object {
$localPath = $_.Document.Folder.Self.Path
“C:\WINDOWS\explorer.exe /e, "$localPath”"
}

I would like to know how to create an array variable (e.g., $myArray) and use a foreach loop to populate the array with the dirPaths.

Foreach (placeholder variable IN collection)
{ What I want to do to the placeholder variable}

Any tips would be much appreciated.

2

Marc B.,
Welcome to the forum. :wave:t4:

PowerShell is made for administrators - not programmers. :wink: So a lot of explicit techniques you need in other programming or scripting languages are done implicitly by PowerShell for you without the need for you to even think about …

I’d recommend to do a step back and learn the fundamentals of PowerShell first. There you will learn that PowerShell has its built in help system where you find all needed basic information.
For example - you can run

Get-Help about_foreach

to get help for the foreach statement. You could add -ShowWindow to get it in a separate window for better readabilty - you can zoom it or search in it.

Get-Help about_foreach -ShowWindow

And for a lot of cmdlets you can add the paramter -Online to open the online version of the help where you can jump to other linked help topics if you need

Get-Help ForEach-Object -Online

You should ALWAYS read the help for the cmdlets you’re about to use completely including the examples to learn how to use them. :wink:

To get an array of items you enumerate in PowerShell you can simply assign the output of the enumeration to a variable. PowerShell will make it an array automatically if there are more than one elements:

$FolderList =
(New-Object -ComObject 'Shell.Application').Windows() | 
ForEach-Object {
    $_.Document.Folder.Self.Path
}

… you can cast the output to an array even if there’s only one element in it with the array sub-expression operator @() …

$FolderList = @(
(New-Object -ComObject 'Shell.Application').Windows() | 
    ForEach-Object {
        $_.Document.Folder.Self.Path
    }
)

And BTW: When you post code, sample data, console output or error messages please format it as code using the preformatted text button ( </> ). Simply place your cursor on an empty line, click the button and paste your code.

Thanks in advance

How to format code in PowerShell.org <---- Click :point_up_2:t4: :wink:

1 Like
3

Thank you very much.
I’ll be studying the lesson you gave me for at least a week, trying out different things. I appreciate it very much.

May I ask you to tell me how to write the result to a .cmd file in the following format, for each FolderPath?
"C:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\python.exe" "e:\pyUtils\DoQqch.py" "FolderPath"

Is there a free web tutorial that you could recommend to learn the fundamentals of PowerShell?

Thank you again. Much appreciated. Marc

4

Why would you like to use an ancient club while you have a fully equiped and easy to use modern tool box? :man_shrugging:t4: :wink: :wink: :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Did you read the help for about_foreach and Foreach-Object?

You may read as well the help topic for

or the call operator …

Please read the help completely including the examples to learn how to use them:

There are several good tutorials out there. One of the most famous ones is this:

Don’t worry that it’s about the version 3.0. The basics are still the same. :wink:

1 Like