Display multiple array values in list in Powershell - arrays

Question

I have multiple arrays like this:
$arrayList1 = #()
$arrayList2 = #()
$arrayList1 += "james"
$arrayList1 += "henry"
$arrayList1 += "bob"
$arrayList2 += "scott"
$arrayList2 += "john"
$arrayList2 += "meera"
$arrayList2 += "lisa"
$arrayList2 += "joseph"
And i want to display the output like this:
arrayList1
arrayList2
james
scott
henry
john
bob
meera
lisa
joseph
Here is what i tried:
$output = #{}
$output.add('arrayList1',$arrayList)
$output.add('arrayList2',$arrayLis2)
[PSCustomObject]$output
$output
And the output looks like this:
arrayList2
arrayList1
{scott,john,meera,lisa,joseph}
{james,henry,bob}
Note: The array won't have same number of data.
Any suggestions how i can get it in the order i want it?
Thanks
Sanjeev

Answer 1

A concise solution (note: assumes that at least one of the arrays is non-empty):
$arrayList1 = 'james', 'henry', 'bob'
$arrayList2 = 'scott', 'john', 'meera', 'lisa', 'joseph'
foreach ($i in 0..([Math]::Max($arrayList1.Count, $arrayList2.Count)-1)) {
[pscustomobject] #{ arrayList1 = $arrayList1[$i]; arrayList2 = $arrayList2[$i] }
}
The above yields the following, as desired:
arrayList1 arrayList2
---------- ----------
james scott
henry john
bob meera
lisa
joseph
As an aside: The - ultimately rejected - proposal in GitHub issue #14732 suggested enhancing the foreach statement in a way that would have made parallel enumeration more convenient, along the lines of
foreach ($elemFromList1, $elemFromList2 in $arrayList1, $arrayList2) { ... }

Answer 2

Try something like this:
$Boys = "Bob", "Noah", "Liam"
$Girls = "Olivia", "Sophia", "Charlotte", "Emma"
Function Fix-Arrays {
Param(
[Parameter(Mandatory=$True)]
[string[]]$ArrayNames,
[switch]$NoWarnings = $False
)
$ValidArrays,$ItemCounts = #(),#()
$VariableLookup = #{}
ForEach ($Array in $ArrayNames) {
Try {
$VariableData = Get-Variable -Name $Array -ErrorAction Stop
$VariableLookup[$Array] = $VariableData.Value
$ValidArrays += $Array
$ItemCounts += ($VariableData.Value | Measure).Count
}
Catch {
If (!$NoWarnings) {Write-Warning -Message "No variable found for [$Array]"}
}
}
$MaxItemCount = ($ItemCounts | Measure -Maximum).Maximum
$FinalArray = #()
For ($Inc = 0; $Inc -lt $MaxItemCount; $Inc++) {
$FinalObj = New-Object PsObject
ForEach ($Item in $ValidArrays) {
$FinalObj | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name $Item -Value $VariableLookup[$Item][$Inc]
}
$FinalArray += $FinalObj
}
$FinalArray
}
Fix-Arrays -ArrayNames "Boys","Girls"
Just edit Fix-Arrays (line 41) and the top two example arrays to suit your needs.