How would I return an object or multiple values from PowerShell to executing C# code

Question

Some C# code executes a powershell script with arguments. I want to get a returncode and a string back from Powershell to know, if everything was ok inside the Powershell script.

What is the right way to do that - in both Powershell and C#

Powershell

# Powershell script # --- Do stuff here --- # Return an int and a string - how? # In c# I would do something like this, if this was a method:  # class ReturnInfo # { #    public int ReturnCode; #    public string ReturnText; # }  # return new ReturnInfo(){ReturnCode =1, ReturnText = "whatever"}; 

C#

void RunPowershellScript(string scriptFile, List<string> parameters)     {                  RunspaceConfiguration runspaceConfiguration = RunspaceConfiguration.Create();          using (Runspace runspace = RunspaceFactory.CreateRunspace(runspaceConfiguration))         {             runspace.Open();             RunspaceInvoke scriptInvoker = new RunspaceInvoke(runspace);             Pipeline pipeline = runspace.CreatePipeline();             Command scriptCommand = new Command(scriptFile);             Collection<CommandParameter> commandParameters = new Collection<CommandParameter>();             foreach (string scriptParameter in parameters)             {                 CommandParameter commandParm = new CommandParameter(null, scriptParameter);                 commandParameters.Add(commandParm);                 scriptCommand.Parameters.Add(commandParm);             }             pipeline.Commands.Add(scriptCommand);             Collection<PSObject> psObjects;             psObjects = pipeline.Invoke();              //What to do here?             //ReturnInfo returnInfo = pipeline.DoMagic();          }     }    class ReturnInfo   {       public int ReturnCode;       public string ReturnText;   } 

I have managed to do this is some hacky ways by using Write-Output and relying on conventions like "last two psObjects are the values I am looking for", but it would break very easily.

Answer 1

In your powershell script you can build an Hashtable based on your necessity:

[hashtable]$Return = @{}  $Return.ReturnCode = [int]1  $Return.ReturnString = [string]"All Done!"  Return $Return  

In C# code handle the Psobject in this way

 ReturnInfo ri = new ReturnInfo();  foreach (PSObject p in psObjects)  {    Hashtable ht = p.ImmediateBaseObject as Hashtable;    ri.ReturnCode = (int)ht["ReturnCode"];    ri.ReturnText = (string)ht["ReturnString"];  }   //Do what you want with ri object. 

If you want to use a PsCustomobject as in Keith Hill comment in powershell v2.0:

powershell script:

$return = new-object psobject -property @{ReturnCode=1;ReturnString="all done"} $return 

c# code:

ReturnInfo ri = new ReturnInfo(); foreach (PSObject p in psObjects)    {      ri.ReturnCode = (int)p.Properties["ReturnCode"].Value;      ri.ReturnText = (string)p.Properties["ReturnString"].Value;    } 

Answer 2

CB.'s answer worked great for me with a minor change. I did not see this posted anywhere (in regards to C# and PowerShell) so I wanted to post it.

In my PowerShell script I created created a Hashtable, stored 2 values in it (a Boolean and an Int) and then converted that into a PSObject:

$Obj = @{}  if($RoundedResults -ilt $Threshold) {     $Obj.bool = $true     $Obj.value = $RoundedResults } else {     $Obj.bool = $false     $Obj.value = $RoundedResults }  $ResultObj = (New-Object PSObject -Property $Obj)  return $ResultObj 

And then in my C# code I did the same thing that CB. did but I had to use Convert.ToString in order to successfully get the values back:

ReturnInfo ri = new ReturnInfo(); foreach (PSObject p in psObjects)    {      ri.ReturnCode = Convert.ToBoolean(p.Properties["ReturnCode"].Value;)      ri.ReturnText = Convert.ToString(p.Properties["ReturnString"].Value;)    } 

I found the answer to this via the following StackOverflow post: https://stackoverflow.com/a/5577500

Where Kieren Johnstone says:

Use Convert.ToDouble(value) rather than (double)value. It takes an object and supports all of the types you asked for! :)