Скачать или смотреть How to Store User-Selected Departments in PowerShell with Read-Host

Discover how to set up PowerShell to allow users to select departments dynamically, storing their choice as a variable, with handy examples included.
---
This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/69555963/ asked by the user 'Daniel De La Warr' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/15487585/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/69556766/ provided by the user 'Zam' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/6466149/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

Visit these links for original content and any more details, such as alternate solutions, latest updates/developments on topic, comments, revision history etc. For example, the original title of the Question was: Variable from Input

Also, Content (except music) licensed under CC BY-SA https://meta.stackexchange.com/help/l...
The original Question post is licensed under the 'CC BY-SA 4.0' ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... ) license, and the original Answer post is licensed under the 'CC BY-SA 4.0' ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... ) license.

If anything seems off to you, please feel free to write me at vlogize [AT] gmail [DOT] com.
---
How to Store User-Selected Departments in PowerShell with Read-Host

When it comes to scripting with PowerShell, it's common to want to gather user input and store it to use later. A typical scenario is when you have a list of options and you want the user to select one. For instance, you might have a list of departments and need to store the user's selection. In this post, we will discuss how to implement this functionality effectively by using an array, taking user input with Read-Host, and handling some basic error checking.

The Challenge

Suppose you have a predefined list of departments, which in our example includes the following:

Music

Science

PE

Maths

Your goal is to allow users to select a department by entering a number corresponding to its position in the list (1-4). The selected value should then be stored in a variable called $department. This may sound simple enough, but we need to consider how to accurately retrieve the user's choice, including implementing safeguards against invalid input.

The Solution

To solve this problem, we can break it down into several steps:

Create an Array of Departments: We'll start by defining an array containing the names of the departments.

Display the Options: Use a loop to list each department with a number in front of it so the user knows what to select.

Get User Input: Use Read-Host to prompt the user to enter a number corresponding to their choice.

Validate the Input: Ensure that the input is a valid integer and falls within the specified range.

Store the Selected Department: Convert the user input into an index to retrieve the correct department from the array and save it to the variable.

Step 1: Create an Array of Departments

Here’s how you can define your array:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Step 2: Display the Options

Next, we will use a foreach loop to iterate over the array and display the available departments along with their corresponding numbers:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Step 3: Get User Input

With our options displayed, we can prompt the user for input:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

This code will keep prompting until the user enters a valid number between 1 and the number of departments.

Step 4: Store the Selected Department

Finally, we will convert the input to an integer, offset it by 1 (to account for array indexing starting from zero), and store the result:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Example Execution and Output

Here’s how the interaction would look when executed in PowerShell:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

In the above example, the user is prompted to enter their choice multiple times until they give a valid number. This ensures robust input handling.

Conclusion

In this guide, we have learned how to effectively use PowerShell to allow users to select from a list of departments, validating their input along the way. This technique can be adapted to any number of cases where user input is required. Remember to implement user-friendly prompts and error checks to enhance the user experience. Happy scripting!