How to return several items from a Powershell function

Question

In a script I have several functions that need to break down an SVN external definition. These can either be <url> <path>, -r<rev> <url> <path>, or -r <rev> <url> <path>, and the mechanics I came up with to extract the data is more than just two lines, so I want to put this into a separate function.

But when I do so, I end up with three variables containing the relevant data which are local to the function, and I see no way to get all three of them them to the caller.

In a proper programming language I would return a compound type containing all three values, but I don't see how to do that in Powershell. Of course, I could split this into three separate functions, but then I am back at violating the DRY rule.

So what can I do here in Powershell?

Answer 1

I agree with @Christian, and I add another solution.

First you can return using an array explicitly or implicitly :

A) explicitly

function ExplicitArray () {   $myArray = @()    $myArray += 12   $myArray += "Blue"    return ,$myArray }  Clear-Host $a = ExplicitArray Write-Host "values from ExplicitArray are $($a[0]) and $($a[1])" 

B) implicitly

function ImplicitArray () {   Write-Output 12    Write-Output "Blue"   return "green" }  $b = ImplicitArray Write-Host "values from ImplicitArray are $($b[0]), $($b[1]) and $($b[2])" 

Second you can return a custom object :

A) Short form

function ReturnObject () {   $value = "" | Select-Object -Property number,color   $value.Number = 12   $value.color = "blue"   return $value } $c = ReturnObject Write-Host "values from ReturnObject are $($c.number) and $($c.color)" 

B) School form

function SchoolReturnObject () {   $value = New-Object PsObject -Property @{color="blue" ; number="12"}   Add-Member -InputObject $value –MemberType NoteProperty –Name "Verb" –value "eat"   return $value } $d = SchoolReturnObject Write-Host "values from SchoolReturnObject are $($d.number), $($d.color) and $($d.Verb)" 

Third using argumen by reference

function addition ([int]$x, [int]$y, [ref]$R) {  $Res = $x + $y  $R.value = $Res }  $O1 = 1 $O2 = 2 $O3 = 0 addition $O1 $O2 ([ref]$O3) Write-Host "values from addition $o1 and $o2 is $o3" 

Answer 2

Maybe I am misunderstanding the question but isn't this just as simple as returning a list of variables, and the caller simply assigns each to a variable. That is

> function test () {return @('a','c'),'b'} > $a,$b = test 

$a will be an array, and $b the letter 'b'

> $a  a c > $b b