Issue with Hash in chart creation

Question

I am trying to create chart by Get-CorpChart-FullEdition script, which I found very good in chart creation.

On the website I found below instruction.

So now, all what you have to do is to give the $Cities array to the function as -Data parameter, and supply the -Obj_Key parameter as "City_Name", and -Obj_Value as "City_Population"

I created a hash like this:

$active_inactive = @{}
$red = 15
$orange = 25
$active_inactive['active']= $red
$active_inactive['inactive'] = $orange

. "D:\Auto\Get-Corpchart-LightEdition.ps1" -data $active_inactive -obj_key "Name" -obj_value "Value" -filepath "c:\chart1.png" -type pie

Data in $active_inactive:

Name                           Value
----                           -----
inactive                       7
active                         3

Problem is I am getting a blank chart1.png file. It seems like issue with my hashtable.

Can anybody advise me if I am creating the hashtable properly as described above or not?

Answer 1

-data expects an array of objects, not a hashtable.

Answer 2

If you wanted to use a hashtable I think you can if you call the .GetEnumarator() method

which effectively sends each entry in the hash table across the pipeline as a separate object.

. "D:\Auto\Get-Corpchart-LightEdition.ps1" -data $active_inactive.GetEnumerator() -obj_key "Name" -obj_value "Value" -filepath "c:\chart1.png" -type pie

Looking at the code for the light edition of the script the parameter is expecting an [array] and not a hashtable.

You would be better of creating your own custom objects from that hashtable's data depending on how complex your date would get.

[pscustomobject]@{
    State="Active"
    Value=15
},[pscustomobject]@{
    State="Inactive"
    Value=25
}

Tonnes of ways to do this more effectively so the above is just an example.