Arrays/Tables/Objects in Powershell

Question

Hi,

I am slowly getting to grips with how to code in Powershell.

What I have noticed is

Arrays
You can add dynamically to an array using $array += "Hello"
You cannot however reference an index of an array without defining it first

Hash Tables
Hash Tables required unique values per row

If I was wanting to have

Ordernumber Position
123 2
123 56
645 1

Am i better having that as a Powershell object?
The add to it on the fly

Answer 1

Hi,

You may try an array of hash tables like below

$array = @{123 = 2}, @{123 = 56}  
$array += @{645 = 1}  

Best Regards,
Ian Xue

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Answer 2

A hash requires that each key is unique. There aren't any "rows" in a hash.

There's nothing to prevent you from having an array as the value associated with a key, though. Here's an example:

$hash = @{}
$position = 1
1,2,1,3,4,2,6,5,3|
    ForEach-Object{
        if ($hash.ContainsKey($_)){
            $hash[$_] += $position  # add value to the array associated with the key
        }
        Else{
            $hash[$_] = ,$position  # create key in hash, set value to an array
        }
        $position++
    }