Problem Statement: The Count and Keys properties can get overloaded by a hash value and not return their expected values.
My Powershell Code is this:
$hash = @{}
$hash.one = "Number 1"
$hash.two = "Number 2"
"Count is [{0}]" -f $hash.Count
$hash.Count = "Count's Hash Value"
"Count is now [{0}]" -f $hash.Count
My Output is this:
Count is [2]
Count is now [Count's Hash Value]
The Count Property gets overloaded! This issues could cause users some very hard to diagnose bugs. Had me confused for a good while. Same issue applies to "Keys" or in fact any Property.
Do you have any thoughts on best practice to avoid this one? Maybe a different System.Collection? or prefixing all Keys with a character such as:
$key = ":" + $key
However, its not very elegant. Even now that I know the issue, I suspect I will forget and make the same mistake again.
I personally think it is a problem with the Powershell Language Definition. The . notation (as in $hash.MyKey) should not be allowed for retrieving hash values, only for retrieving Property values. Just a thought. :-)
Thanks for your help.