passing a string-array and the foreach loop do not work: no array but one string?

Question

I have an array of ntp-server passed at a function to loop through that. This is what happens:

  $srvA = @(
      '0.at.pool.ntp.org',
      '1.at.pool.ntp.org',
      '2.at.pool.ntp.org',
      '3.at.pool.ntp.org'
  )

  Function Get-NtpTime {
      param($srvList)
      $srvList
      $nSrv = $srvList.Length
      foreach ( $Server in $srvList ) {
          $nSrv--
          Write-Host $Server $nSrv
      }
  }

  Get-NtpTime $srvA
  0.at.pool.ntp.org 1.at.pool.ntp.org 2.at.pool.ntp.org 3.at.pool.ntp.org
  0.at.pool.ntp.org 1.at.pool.ntp.org 2.at.pool.ntp.org 3.at.pool.ntp.org 70

As you see $srvList seems to be one sring not an array of strings and
$Server is not a single server but all and the length is 70 not 4.
The definition of the array seems to be incorrect but where why and how? (I tried version of 1 line-array - no difference)

What version of PowerShell are you running? Running the exact code you show on v4 I get the expected results, not what you got. — TheMadTechnician
– TheMadTechnician, Commented Sep 2, 2014 at 19:14
@TheMadTechnician I don't know the version, but this is very basic? — gooly
– gooly, Commented Sep 2, 2014 at 19:22

Aaron Jensen · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-02 21:06:13Z

2

You should type your $srvList parameter as an array.

function Get-NtpTime
{
    param(
        [string[]]
        $srvList
    )

    # ...snip...
}

answered Sep 2, 2014 at 21:06

Aaron Jensen

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Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 11:57:16Z

Based on your comment that restarting the ISE fixed the issue, it sounds like $srvA had been declared as a string variable at one point during the session. Once declared with a specific type, PowerShell will coerce any future assignments to the variable's declared type:

> $a = @( 'one', 'two', 'three' )  # No type declaration
> $a
one
two
three

> [string]$b = @( 'one', 'two', 'three' )  # Declared as string
> $b
one two three

> $b = @( 'four', 'five' )  # Re-using variable declared as string
> $b
four five

You could fix this in the current session by re-declaring the variable as the desired type, in this case using [string[]]$srvA = @( ... ).

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