Environment Info:

PS C:\> Get-WmiObject Win32_OperatingSystem


SystemDirectory : C:\Windows\system32
Organization    :
BuildNumber     : 9600
RegisteredUser  : xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
SerialNumber    : xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
Version         : 6.3.9600 # Windows 8.1, Update 1



PS C:\> $PSVersionTable

Name                           Value
----                           -----
PSVersion                      5.1.14409.1018
PSEdition                      Desktop
PSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0...}
BuildVersion                   10.0.14409.1018
CLRVersion                     4.0.30319.42000
WSManStackVersion              3.0
PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.3
SerializationVersion           1.1.0.1

Background:

why I made this:

• my USB HDD is a little bit unstable. and I need to find files and store paths progressively.
• if some error will occur, store the error information instead of the path.
• I intend to use [TreeElement] objects for storing and searching.

I made a simple tree class:

# need Powershell v5.0 higher
class TreeElement
{
    $Value = $null
    [System.Collections.Generic.List[TreeElement]] $Children = [System.Collections.Generic.List[TreeElement]]::new()
    [TreeElement] $Parent = $null

    TreeElement($Value)
    {
        $this.Value = $Value
    }

    [TreeElement] AddChild([TreeElement] $Child)
    {
        $this.Children.Add($Child)
        return $Child
    }

    [TreeElement] AddChildValue($ChildValue)
    {
        $Child = [TreeElement]::new($ChildValue)
        $this.Children.Add($Child)
        return $Child
    }
}

I finished coding, and tested like this:

$root = [TreeElement]::new(1)
$root.AddChildValue(2)
$root.AddChildValue(3)
$root.AddChildValue(4)
$root.AddChildValue(5)

$root

The last line will show this in the console.

Value Children                                             Parent
----- --------                                             ------
    1 {TreeElement, TreeElement, TreeElement, TreeElement}

nop.

I wanted to store $root to a file.

so I decided to use *-Clixml, and coded:

Function Store-Tree
{
    [OutputType([void])]
    Param
    (
        [string]$Path,
        [TreeElement]$RootElement
    )

    Export-Clixml -Path $Path -InputObject $RootElement
}

Function Restore-Tree
{
    Param
    (
        [string]$Path
    )

    # restore from xml
    $obj = Import-Clixml -Path $Path

    # Reconstruct instances...
    $result = Reconstruct-Tree -RootObject $obj
    return $result
}

Function Reconstruct-Tree
{
    [OutputType([TreeElement])]
    Param
    (
        [PSObject] $RootObject
    )

    $root = [TreeElement]::new($RootObject.Value)

    foreach($ChildObject in $RootObject.Children)
    {
        [TreeElement] $branch = Reconstruct-Tree $ChildObject
        [void] $root.AddChild($branch)
    }

    return $root
}

Then I tested it:

PS> mkdir C:\temp
PS> $path = "C:\temp\root-tree.xml"
PS> $root # original instance

Value Children                                             Parent
----- --------                                             ------
    1 {TreeElement, TreeElement, TreeElement, TreeElement}


PS> Store-Tree -Path $path -RootElement $root # store in xml. instances are converted to [PsObject] internally.
PS> $root_r = Restore-Tree -Path $path # restore instances with type of [TreeElement].

Value       Children Parent
-----       -------- ------
TreeElement {}                      # what?

Problem:

I expected $root_r has an instance almost the same as $root.

but $root_r has an expected object in the Children member.

I wanted to return just the object.

debugging showed that the [TreeElement] constructor was running when the function Reconstruct-Tree returned the object.

Question:

Is there a way to return just the object? Did I do something wrong?

I googled some site, but no information was gained.

Any help is appreciated.

Thank you for your help in advance.