Powershell null value

Question

(get-process | select-object ProcessName,Id,WS -First 1).count - > null this comes null why is that? if I put @(get-process | select-object ProcessName,Id,WS -First 1).count - > 1 My second issue is when I run @($y.entries.values).count - > 1 (This is wrong) but when I run $y.entries.values - > Comes null (this is correct) @($y.entries.values).count must be null NOT 1 Why?

@($null).count =1 - > when I calculate if it is null then it comes 1

Please help me

Answer 1

When you run (get-process | select-object ProcessName,Id,WS -First 1).count the Select-Object picks the first object from the pipe. Because there's only one object the result is a scalar value, not an array, and scalars don't have a "count" property.

When you place the "@" sigil in front of the parentheses you're coercing the result to be an array. Arrays have a "count" property so you'll get the answer you expected. In your other example, the $y.entries.values property is probably a null value. The value "$null" has no "count" property. When you use the "@" sigil you will get an array with a single element whose value is $null. Again, an array has a "count" property.

Answer 2

I wrote a function to resolve this

Function ValueORzero
        {
            param (
                $myVal
            )
            if (![string]::IsNullOrEmpty($myVal))
            {
                $res=($myVal.count)
            }
            else
            {
                $res=0
            }
            return $res 
        }
        
        $answer=ValueORzero ($x.entries.values)