PowerShell: Array to multiple array - arrays

Question

i have a simple Array, created with the following Content (loop not shown)
$tmpArray += $AlarmgroupIndexString + ";" + $LanguageIDString + ";" + $ID_string + ";" + $_.Value
Is there a possibility to add the Content to a multidimensional Array?
I'll have to filter the entries later. With this setup, that's not possible.
I have made an attempt with the help of
$list = ConvertFrom-Csv $tmpArray -Header "GroupID", "Language", "TextID", "Text" -Delimiter ";"
$list | Sort-Object -Property GroupID, Language, TextID#
Unfortunately the conversion to excel did not result in a column Separation...
Please find my Code here
foreach ($file in $fileNames) {
$Content = [xml](Get-Content -Path $file.FullName)
$ns = New-Object System.Xml.XmlNamespaceManager($Content.NameTable)
$ns=#{DEF="http://br-automation.co.at/AS/VC/Project"}
$AlarmgroupIndex = Select-Xml -Xml $Content -XPath "//DEF:Property[contains(#Name,'Index')]" -namespace $ns | select -ExpandProperty node
$AlarmgroupIndexString = $AlarmgroupIndex.Value
$AlarmgroupLanguageText = Select-Xml -Xml $Content -XPath "//DEF:TextLayer" -namespace $ns | select -ExpandProperty node
$AlarmgroupIndexMap = Select-Xml -Xml $Content -XPath "//DEF:Index" -namespace $ns | select -ExpandProperty node
$LUT =#{}
$AlarmgroupIndexMap | foreach{
$LUT.($_.ID) = $_.Value
}
$tmpArray =#()
$AlarmgroupLanguageText | foreach{
$LanguageIDString = $_.LanguageId
$AlarmgroupTextLayer = Select-Xml -Xml $Content -XPath "//DEF:TextLayer[#LanguageId='$LanguageIDString']/DEF:Text" -namespace $ns | select -ExpandProperty node
$AlarmgroupTextLayer | foreach{
if($LUT.ContainsKey($_.ID))
{
$ID_string = $LUT[$_.ID]
}
$tmpArray += $AlarmgroupIndexString + ";" + $LanguageIDString + ";" + $ID_string + ";" + $_.Value
}
$LanguageIDString=""
}
$tmpArray | Out-File "$rootPath\test.txt" -Append -Encoding utf8
$list = ConvertFrom-Csv $tmpArray -Header 'GroupID', 'Language', 'TextID', 'Text' -Delimiter ";"
$list | Sort-Object -Property GroupID, Language, TextID
}
TIA

Answer 1

First of all:
$AlarmgroupIndexString + ";" + $LanguageIDString + ";" + $ID_string + ";" + $_.Value is not an array but a string (with sub-strings separated by semicolons)
Try to avoid using the increase assignment operator (+=) to create a collection (or a string) as it is exponential expensive (meaning that the cost will increase with each iteration).
It is a pity that you not showing more details about the loop as the result of your question actually depends how you initialize the $tmpArray variable:
If you start with a string ($tmpArray = '') or $Null it will continue to append to that string.
If you start with a string ($tmpArray = #()) it will continue to append the array (which is probably where you looking for).
If you going to use ConvertFrom-Csv you might also consider to start with a string and separate each row with a newline (e.g. ... + $_.Value + "`r`n")
Anyways, it is also not a good idea to use ConvertFrom-Csv to build a collection of PowerShell objects (for one reason: it will convert all the values to a string), the correct PowerShell way to do this is:
$List = 1..3 | Foreach-Object { # replace 1..3 with your enumerator
[pscustomobject]#{
AlarmIndex = $AlarmgroupIndexString
LanguageIndex = $LanguageIDString
ID = $ID_string
Value = $_.Value
}
}
}
Update based on the added information in the question:
I am not sure what exactly your application is supposed to do, but the loop should be something like:
$list = $AlarmgroupLanguageText | foreach {
$LanguageIDString = $_.LanguageId
$AlarmgroupTextLayer = Select-Xml -Xml $Content -XPath "//DEF:TextLayer[#LanguageId='$LanguageIDString']/DEF:Text" -namespace $ns | select -ExpandProperty node
$AlarmgroupTextLayer | foreach{
if($LUT.ContainsKey($_.ID))
{
$ID_string = $LUT[$_.ID]
}
[pscustomobject]#{
GroupID = $AlarmgroupIndexString
Language = $LanguageIDString
TextID = $ID_string
Text = $_.Value
}
}
}
$list | Sort-Object -Property GroupID, Language, TextID

Answer 2

I will suggest you to have a quick look on this article: https://www.andreasbijl.com/powershell-create-collections-of-custom-objects/
You can generate the list you want using the example described in the link above. For your case it should look similar to this:
$list = New-Object System.Collections.ArrayList
your_foreach_loop
{
$temp = New-Object System.Object
$temp | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "GroupID" -Value $AlarmgroupIndexString
$temp | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "Language" -Value $LanguageIDString
$temp | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "TextID" -Value $ID_string
$temp | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "Text" -Value $_.Value
$list.Add($temp)
}