How to Prevent Index Numbers from Printing in Powershell Array Outputs

Learn how to suppress unwanted index numbers when printing `Powershell` arrays to get readable outputs.
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This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/66746026/ asked by the user 'vimal mishra' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/3959477/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/66746114/ provided by the user 'filimonic' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/1936966/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

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How to Prevent Index Numbers from Printing in Powershell Array Outputs

When working with arrays in Powershell, you might encounter a scenario where the console outputs both the values you want to see and the index numbers of those values. This can clutter your output and make it less readable. In this guide, we'll explore a commonly faced issue and how to effectively resolve it.

Understanding the Problem

Let’s consider a situation where you are trying to return an array in Powershell. Here’s a snippet of code that demonstrates this:

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When you run this code, the output might look something like this:

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You can see that the numbers 0 and 1 are printed before the actual values. This happens because the Add method used for ArrayList returns the index of the newly added item, which is printed by default.

How to Suppress the Index Output

To effectively suppress the unwanted index numbers while printing your array values, you can use a few different approaches.

Method 1: Use the [void] Cast

You can cast the execution of the Add method to [void]. This tells Powershell that you don’t care about the return value, which effectively omits the index from being printed:

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Method 2: Use Out-Null

Alternatively, you can pipe the addition operation to Out-Null, which discards any output:

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Method 3: Assign to a Variable

If you need to capture the return value for any reason (like debugging or logging), you can assign it to a variable:

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This will store the index in $indexOfItem1, while still preventing it from being outputted to the console.

Conclusion

By employing one of these methods, you can easily suppress unwanted index numbers in your Powershell array outputs. This ensures that your console displays only the meaningful data you want to see, improving readability and usability.

Remember to choose the method that best fits your needs—whether it’s a simple cast to void, utilizing Out-Null, or capturing the returned index in a variable.

Now go ahead, update your code, and enjoy cleaner outputs in your Powershell scripts!