How to remove item from an array in PowerShell? - arrays

Question

I'm using Powershell 1.0 to remove an item from an Array. Here's my script:
param (
[string]$backupDir = $(throw "Please supply the directory to housekeep"),
[int]$maxAge = 30,
[switch]$NoRecurse,
[switch]$KeepDirectories
)
$days = $maxAge * -1
# do not delete directories with these values in the path
$exclusionList = Get-Content HousekeepBackupsExclusions.txt
if ($NoRecurse)
{
$filesToDelete = Get-ChildItem $backupDir | where-object {$_.PsIsContainer -ne $true -and $_.LastWriteTime -lt $(Get-Date).AddDays($days)}
}
else
{
$filesToDelete = Get-ChildItem $backupDir -Recurse | where-object {$_.PsIsContainer -ne $true -and $_.LastWriteTime -lt $(Get-Date).AddDays($days)}
}
foreach ($file in $filesToDelete)
{
# remove the file from the deleted list if it's an exclusion
foreach ($exclusion in $exclusionList)
{
"Testing to see if $exclusion is in " + $file.FullName
if ($file.FullName.Contains($exclusion)) {$filesToDelete.Remove($file); "FOUND ONE!"}
}
}
I realize that Get-ChildItem in powershell returns a System.Array type. I therefore get this error when trying to use the Remove method:
Method invocation failed because [System.Object[]] doesn't contain a method named 'Remove'.
What I'd like to do is convert $filesToDelete to an ArrayList and then remove items using ArrayList.Remove. Is this a good idea or should I directly manipulate $filesToDelete as a System.Array in some way?
Thanks

Answer 1

The best way to do this is to use Where-Object to perform the filtering and use the returned array.
You can also use #splat to pass multiple parameters to a command (new in V2). If you cannot upgrade (and you should if at all possible, then just collect the output from Get-ChildItems (only repeating that one CmdLet) and do all the filtering in common code).
The working part of your script becomes:
$moreArgs = #{}
if (-not $NoRecurse) {
$moreArgs["Recurse"] = $true
}
$filesToDelete = Get-ChildItem $BackupDir #moreArgs |
where-object {-not $_.PsIsContainer -and
$_.LastWriteTime -lt $(Get-Date).AddDays($days) -and
-not $_.FullName.Contains($exclusion)}
In PSH arrays are immutable, you cannot modify them, but it very easy to create a new one (operators like += on arrays actually create a new array and return that).

Answer 2

I agree with Richard, that Where-Object should be used here. However, it's harder to read.
What I would propose:
# get $filesToDelete and #exclusionList. In V2 use splatting as proposed by Richard.
$res = $filesToDelete | % {
$file = $_
$isExcluded = ($exclusionList | % { $file.FullName.Contains($_) } )
if (!$isExcluded) {
$file
}
}
#the files are in $res
Also note that generally it is not possible to iterate over a collection and change it. You would get an exception.
$a = New-Object System.Collections.ArrayList
$a.AddRange((1,2,3))
foreach($item in $a) { $a.Add($item*$item) }
An error occurred while enumerating through a collection:
At line:1 char:8
+ foreach <<<< ($item in $a) { $a.Add($item*$item) }
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (System.Collecti...numeratorSimple:ArrayListEnumeratorSimple) [], RuntimeException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : BadEnumeration

Answer 3

This is ancient. But, I wrote these a while ago to add and remove from powershell lists using recursion. It leverages the ability of powershell to do multiple assignment . That is, you can do $a,$b,$c=#('a','b','c') to assign a b and c to their variables. Doing $a,$b=#('a','b','c') assigns 'a' to $a and #('b','c') to $b.
First is by item value. It'll remove the first occurrence.
function Remove-ItemFromList ($Item,[array]$List(throw"the item $item was not in the list"),[array]$chckd_list=#())
{
if ($list.length -lt 1 ) { throw "the item $item was not in the list" }
$check_item,$temp_list=$list
if ($check_item -eq $item )
{
$chckd_list+=$temp_list
return $chckd_list
}
else
{
$chckd_list+=$check_item
return (Remove-ItemFromList -item $item -chckd_list $chckd_list -list $temp_list )
}
}
This one removes by index. You can probably mess it up good by passing a value to count in the initial call.
function Remove-IndexFromList ([int]$Index,[array]$List,[array]$chckd_list=#(),[int]$count=0)
{
if (($list.length+$count-1) -lt $index )
{ throw "the index is out of range" }
$check_item,$temp_list=$list
if ($count -eq $index)
{
$chckd_list+=$temp_list
return $chckd_list
}
else
{
$chckd_list+=$check_item
return (Remove-IndexFromList -count ($count + 1) -index $index -chckd_list $chckd_list -list $temp_list )
}
}

Answer 4

This is a very old question, but the problem is still valid, but none of the answers fit my scenario, so I will suggest another solution.
I my case, I read in an xml configuration file and I want to remove an element from an array.
[xml]$content = get-content $file
$element = $content.PathToArray | Where-Object {$_.name -eq "ElementToRemove" }
$element.ParentNode.RemoveChild($element)
This is very simple and gets the job done.