Powershell Arrays diplay issue

Question

I am creating a Powershell script that takes as input list of cluster names from file. Then it mades some changes to the names in order to derive the 2 nodes names by adding 1 letter to the name. After that it checks 2 files in each cluster node and compairs them by date modify. Stores the result as Custom PS opject in array. All works great. The only issue I have is that if I call in the end the two arrays for the 2 files the output is not OK.

The Code:

$clusters=Get-Content C:\temp\clusters.csv

#Variables
$FileA="C$\Program Files\fileA.txt"
$FileB="C$\Program Files\fileB.txt"

$FileA_ar=@()
$FileB_ar=@()
foreach ($cluster in $clusters)
    {
#   Write-Host " "
#   Write-Host "=============================================================="
#    Write-Host "Checking $cluster" -ForegroundColor Cyan
    $Xnode = "s"+$cluster.substring(1,9) + "X"    
    $Ynode = "s"+$cluster.substring(1,9) + "Y"
    
    #checking if FileA is identical
    
#    write-host "Checking iTernity.User.config files on $cluster" -ForegroundColor Yellow
    $file1=\\$xnode\$FileA
    $file2=\\$ynode\$FileA
    $f1t=(Get-Item $file1).LastWriteTime
    $f2t=(Get-Item $file2).LastWriteTime
    if ($f1t -lt $f2t) #Checking if file1 last modified time is later than that on file 2
        {
    #    Copy-Item $file1 $file1"old" -Force
     #   Copy-Item $file2 $file1 -Force
     #   write-host "$ynode newer than $xnode Copying file..."-ForegroundColor red
        $FileA_arr+= New-Object -TypeName psobject -Property @{
        Cluster=$cluster
        UserConfig ="Not Synced"
        Newer =$Ynode}
        
        }
    else
        {if($f2t -lt $f1t) 

        {
    #    Copy-Item $file2 $file2"old" -Force
    #    Copy-Item $file1 $file2 -Force
    #    write-host "$xnode newer than $ynode Copying file..."-ForegroundColor red
        $FileA_ar+= New-Object -TypeName psobject -Property @{
        Cluster=$cluster
        UserConfig ="Not Synced"
        Newer =$xnode}
        
        }
        else 
            {
            #Write-Host "Files identical"-ForegroundColor Green
            $FileA_ar+= New-Object -TypeName psobject -Property @{
            Cluster=$cluster
            UserConfig ="Synced"
            Newer ="NA"}
            
            }} 
 
#    Write-Host "--------------------------------------------------------------"

#       write-host "Checking FileB files on $cluster" -ForegroundColor Yellow
    $file1=\\$xnode\$FileB
    $file2=\\$ynode\$FileB
    $f1t=(Get-Item $file1).LastWriteTime
    $f2t=(Get-Item $file2).LastWriteTime
    if ($f1t -lt $f2t)
        {
   #     Copy-Item $file1 $file1"old"
  #      Copy-Item $file2 $file1 -Force
  #      write-host "File on $yNode newer than $xnode! Copying file..."-ForegroundColor red
        $FileB_ar+= New-Object -TypeName psobject -Property @{
        Cluster=$cluster
        $FileB ="Not Synced"
        Newer =$Ynode}
        
        }
    else
        {if($f2t -lt $f1t) {
  #      Copy-Item $file2 $file2"old"

  #      Copy-Item $file1 $file2 -Force
  #      write-host "File on $xnode newer than $ynode! Copying file..."-ForegroundColor red
        $FileB_ar+= New-Object -TypeName psobject -Property @{
        Cluster=$cluster
        $FileB ="Not Synced"
        Newer =$xnode}
        }
        else 
            {
    #       Write-Host "Files identical"-ForegroundColor Green
            $FileB_ar+= New-Object -TypeName psobject -Property @{
            Cluster=$cluster
            $FileB ="Synced"
            Newer ="NA"}
            
            }} }


$FileB_ar   
      
$FileA_ar

The Output of this code looks like that:

Cluster                      FileA     Newer
-------                      ---------- -----
Cluster1nodeA                Synced     NA   
Cluster1nodeB                Synced     NA   
Cluster2nodeA                Synced     NA   
Cluster2nodeB                Synced     NA   
Cluster3nodeA                Synced     NA   
Cluster3nodeB                Synced     NA     
Cluster1nodeA                           NA   
Cluster1nodeB                           NA   
Cluster2nodeA                           NA   
Cluster2nodeB                           NA   
Cluster3nodeA                           NA   
Cluster3nodeB                           NA

If I call the variables manualy after the script is executed I got the correct output:

PS C:\ $FileA   

Cluster                      FileA     Newer
-------                      ---------- -----
Cluster1nodeA                Synced     NA   
Cluster1nodeB                Synced     NA   
Cluster2nodeA                Synced     NA   
Cluster2nodeB                Synced     NA   
Cluster3nodeA                Synced     NA   
Cluster3nodeB                Synced     NA  



PS C:\ $FileB

Cluster                      FileB    Newer
-------                      ---------- -----
Cluster1nodeA                Synced     NA   
Cluster1nodeB                Synced     NA   
Cluster2nodeA                Synced     NA   
Cluster2nodeB                Synced     NA   
Cluster3nodeA                Synced     NA   
Cluster3nodeB                Synced     NA

I do not know why this happens. I tried diferent varians by adding wait time between the variables and so on but it aways connects the output of both variables.. Does someone knows why this happens?

Thanks in advance!

If you just want to **fix** the issue, append ```| format-table``` to your ```$fileb_ar``` and ```$filea_ar```. If you want to **understand** the issue then you’ll need to have a read about how Powershell serialises output to the console using ```Out-Default```, ```Format-Table``` and a 300ms delay on *implicitly* formatted output - this answer is a bit of a baptism of fire if you’re new to PowerShell, but explains the root cause - https://stackoverflow.com/a/34858911/3156906. And here’s another unexpected side effect - https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/issues/4594 — mclayton, May 14 '23 at 10:29
See also:aa[Mastering the pipeline/missing properties](https://devblogs.microsoft.com/powershell-community/mastering-the-steppable-pipeline/#missing-properties) — iRon, May 14 '23 at 13:35
As an aside: [try to avoid using the increase assignment operator (`+=`) to create a collection](https://stackoverflow.com/a/60708579/1701026) as it is pretty expensive. — iRon, May 14 '23 at 15:00

Powershell Arrays diplay issue

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