Need help creating custom objects and adding them to an array.

Question

Hi Everyone,
So I'm dinking around in Powershell today and I'm failing at creating an array of custom objects.  I want to create a HTML report that builds out after every MDT image update. To do that, I need to collect my data on what's contained in each build.
Here's my current script in progress -
function Parse-Dependents($fullname){
#PARAMETER SWITCHING
if(!($fullname)){
$dependents = get-dependents
if($fullname){
$dependents = get-dependents -fullname $fullname
#SPIN THROUGH ARRAY OF GUIDS FROM GET-DEPENDENTS
foreach($d in $dependents){
#SPIN THROUGH EACH APP IN APPLICATIONS.XML
foreach ($app in $apps){
#IF MATCH THEN ADD OBJECT WITH PROPERTIES
if($d -match $app.guid){
#ADD APPLICATION MATCH TO THE ARRAY
$applications = @{
'Name' = $app.ShortName;
'GUID' = $app.Guid;
'Version' = $app.Version;
'Last Modified Time' = $app.LastModifiedTime;
'Last Modified By' = $app.LastModifiedBy;
'Install Directory' = [string]'\\my\path\to\MDT\' + $app.WorkingDirectory.TrimStart(".","\")
'CommandLine' = $app.CommandLine;
new-object -typename PSObject -property $applications
#RETURN MATCHED ARRAY
return $applications
It all works great until I look at my output and see that I get my expected properties and array, but at the end it's created additional empty entries for each of my initial properties I assigned.  So I get my list of apps like this :
powershell.ex... OrgChart Plugin  \\my\mdt\server\ XX\user                     9/22/2014 5:... {ffee7497-0c...
And then below it :
                 CommandLine                                                                                    
                 Name                                                                                           
                 Install Direc...                                                                               
                 Last Modified By                                                                               
                 Version                                                                                        
                 Last Modified...                                                                               
                 GUID                                                                                           
And these are all listed under the Name property.  I'm still pretty new to PS (8 months or so now), and rarely have to create a custom object, but this seems like a case for doing so to create a custom html report.  Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Ryan

Answer 1

It's not really all that strange.  
If you look at your script, you're not outputting the hash table until both loops finish.  The values are dependent on the properties of the $app objects enumerated in the inner loop, and only outputting an object if the dependent ($d) matches the $app
guid property.
At the end, you're outputting the hash table without that test, so it's going to have values based on the last $app in the loop, regardless of whether the guid matches the dependents or not.
[string](0..33|%{[char][int](46+("686552495351636652556262185355647068516270555358646562655775 0645570").substring(($_*2),2))})-replace " "