Wsrtjtyk

I am trying to count some lines output by a command. Basically all the lines which end in " Y " in this example.

Fist Capture the command results:

PS> $ItsAgents = tacmd listSystems -n Primary:SomeHost:NT

PS> $ItsAgents

Managed System Name      Product Code Version     Status

Primary:SomeHost:NT NT           06.30.07.00 Y

SomeHost:Q7         Q7           06.30.01.00 N

Now count the online ones:

PS> $AgentCount = ($ItsAgents | Select-String ' Y ').Count

PS> $AgentCount

1

Now that all works as I expect. So I put it in my script like this:

$ItsAgents = tacmd listSystems -n $agent

Write-Host $ItsAgents

$BeforeCount = ($ItsAgents | Select-String ' Y ').Count

And when the script runs (under Set-StrictMode) I get:

The property 'Count' cannot be found on this object. Verify that the

property exists.

At Y:ScriptsnewMoveAgents.ps1:303 char:7

+             $BeforeCount = ($ItsAgents | Select-String ' Y ').Count

+             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) , PropertyNotFoundException

    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : PropertyNotFoundStrict

The Write-Host does output sane results so $agent is set correctly and the tacmd command is running OK
So why does it fail in the script, but work on command line?

Use the @() operator to force the output to always be an array:

$BeforeCount = @($ItsAgents | Select-String ' Y ').Count

The array sub-expression operator creates an array, even if it
contains zero or one object.
(Microsoft Docs)

Note: Afaik it should work the same way both as a script and inside the console. Maybe your commands produce different output, where the console version returns 2+ results but for some reason the script version only 1 or 0 results, which would be the reason why there is not Count property.