I would advise against that. The help info for Out-GridView shows that the -InputObject parameter only accepts a single object:
Out-GridView Help
Now that I’m on a computer i’ll step through this a bit more.
At the beginning you call the array $OnlineADComputerList and we can see that it only contains string objects; names of computers.
Then you try to pass it to Out-GridView and receive an error. This can be fixed by piping it to Out-GridView instead. Example:
$OnlineADComputerList | Out-GridView
Which nets you something like this
Since the input objects are just strings there aren’t really any properties for Out-GridView to magically turn in to columns, so it’s just a list.
When you used the GetType method on
$OnlineADComputerList it correctly returned that it was an Array object, but that’s not what the contents of the array are. One way you could see that is to pipe the array to Get-Member and you’ll see something like this:
PS #> $OnlineADComputerList | gm
TypeName: System.String
Name MemberType Definition
---- ---------- ----------
Clone Method System.Object Clone(), System.Object ICloneable.Clone()
CompareTo Method int CompareTo(System.Object value), int CompareTo(string strB), int IComparable.CompareTo(System.Object obj...
Contains Method bool Contains(string value)
CopyTo Method void CopyTo(int sourceIndex, char[] destination, int destinationIndex, int count)
EndsWith Method bool EndsWith(string value), bool EndsWith(string value, System.StringComparison comparisonType), bool Ends...
Equals Method bool Equals(System.Object obj), bool Equals(string value), bool Equals(string value, System.StringCompariso...
GetEnumerator Method System.CharEnumerator GetEnumerator(), System.Collections.IEnumerator IEnumerable.GetEnumerator(), System.C...
GetHashCode Method int GetHashCode()
GetType Method type GetType()
GetTypeCode Method System.TypeCode GetTypeCode(), System.TypeCode IConvertible.GetTypeCode()
IndexOf Method int IndexOf(char value), int IndexOf(char value, int startIndex), int IndexOf(string value), int IndexOf(st...
IndexOfAny Method int IndexOfAny(char[] anyOf), int IndexOfAny(char[] anyOf, int startIndex), int IndexOfAny(char[] anyOf, in...
Insert Method string Insert(int startIndex, string value)
IsNormalized Method bool IsNormalized(), bool IsNormalized(System.Text.NormalizationForm normalizationForm)
LastIndexOf Method int LastIndexOf(char value), int LastIndexOf(char value, int startIndex), int LastIndexOf(string value), in...
LastIndexOfAny Method int LastIndexOfAny(char[] anyOf), int LastIndexOfAny(char[] anyOf, int startIndex), int LastIndexOfAny(char...
Normalize Method string Normalize(), string Normalize(System.Text.NormalizationForm normalizationForm)
PadLeft Method string PadLeft(int totalWidth), string PadLeft(int totalWidth, char paddingChar)
PadRight Method string PadRight(int totalWidth), string PadRight(int totalWidth, char paddingChar)
Remove Method string Remove(int startIndex, int count), string Remove(int startIndex)
Replace Method string Replace(char oldChar, char newChar), string Replace(string oldValue, string newValue)
Split Method string[] Split(Params char[] separator), string[] Split(char[] separator, int count), string[] Split(char[]...
StartsWith Method bool StartsWith(string value), bool StartsWith(string value, System.StringComparison comparisonType), bool ...
Substring Method string Substring(int startIndex), string Substring(int startIndex, int length)
ToBoolean Method bool IConvertible.ToBoolean(System.IFormatProvider provider)
ToByte Method byte IConvertible.ToByte(System.IFormatProvider provider)
ToChar Method char IConvertible.ToChar(System.IFormatProvider provider)
ToCharArray Method char[] ToCharArray(), char[] ToCharArray(int startIndex, int length)
ToDateTime Method datetime IConvertible.ToDateTime(System.IFormatProvider provider)
ToDecimal Method decimal IConvertible.ToDecimal(System.IFormatProvider provider)
ToDouble Method double IConvertible.ToDouble(System.IFormatProvider provider)
ToInt16 Method int16 IConvertible.ToInt16(System.IFormatProvider provider)
ToInt32 Method int IConvertible.ToInt32(System.IFormatProvider provider)
ToInt64 Method long IConvertible.ToInt64(System.IFormatProvider provider)
ToLower Method string ToLower(), string ToLower(cultureinfo culture)
ToLowerInvariant Method string ToLowerInvariant()
ToSByte Method sbyte IConvertible.ToSByte(System.IFormatProvider provider)
ToSingle Method float IConvertible.ToSingle(System.IFormatProvider provider)
ToString Method string ToString(), string ToString(System.IFormatProvider provider), string IConvertible.ToString(System.IF...
ToType Method System.Object IConvertible.ToType(type conversionType, System.IFormatProvider provider)
ToUInt16 Method uint16 IConvertible.ToUInt16(System.IFormatProvider provider)
ToUInt32 Method uint32 IConvertible.ToUInt32(System.IFormatProvider provider)
ToUInt64 Method uint64 IConvertible.ToUInt64(System.IFormatProvider provider)
ToUpper Method string ToUpper(), string ToUpper(cultureinfo culture)
ToUpperInvariant Method string ToUpperInvariant()
Trim Method string Trim(Params char[] trimChars), string Trim()
TrimEnd Method string TrimEnd(Params char[] trimChars)
TrimStart Method string TrimStart(Params char[] trimChars)
Chars ParameterizedProperty char Chars(int index) {get;}
Length Property int Length {get;}
Now we can see that the contents of the array are String objects.
Piping the array to Select-Object * is the equivalent of Select-Object -Properties * and from the previous Get-Member output we can see that the only property on a string object is length, so it correctly returned a table of each objects length. I’m not sure what output you were hoping to get from that.
As I mentioned earlier, when you piped the array to Format-Custom, it fundamentally changed all of your data and the resulting output objects became Format info objects instead of your original strings.