Data missing while using Select-Object *

Hi, I have a System.Array with data in it ,
but while I try to output it to somewhere else, I cant get a proper data display.
Export-CSV will alo have the same result with $new | Select-Object *

I assume that the type is wrong but I have no any ideas.
Please point out my misstake. Many thanks.

James

On mobile so this will be short.
Your error with Out-GridView is because you can’t pass an array to that cmdlet’s default parameter. You need to pipe the array to Out-GridView.

After that you pipe your array to Format-Custom which technically changes all of your output to formatting objects. Format-* cmdlets should never be used for anything except displaying data on the console. If you want to be able to do something else with that data, like turn it into a csv, you shouldn’t run formatting cmdlets on it.

Instead of trying to pass your variable as a parameter to Out-Gridview try piping it in instead.

$OnlineADComputerList | Out-Gridview

Or you could try actually using the paramter Out-GridView -InputObject $OnlineADComputerList

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.

3 Likes

Thank you ! This worked.
$OnlineADComputerList | Out-Gridview

Seems i have to read more about piping,
Thanks again!

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.