PowerShell / PowerShell/PSScriptAnalyzer
PSUseOutputTypeCorrectly/[OutputType()] fires incorrectly, reporting that a fn should return string when the function actually return array of strings
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Description
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- Make sure you are able to repro it on the latest released version
- Perform a quick search for existing issues to check if this bug has already been reported
Steps to reproduce
function Split-KeyValuePairFormatter {
[OutputType('System.String[]')]
[CmdletBinding()]
param (
[Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
[string]
$Format,
[string]
$KeyConstituent,
[string]
$ValueConstituent,
[string]
$KeyPlaceHolder = "<%KEY%>",
[string]
$ValuePlaceHolder = "<%VALUE%>"
)
[string[]]$constituents = @();
# IMPLEMENTATION CODE OMITTED, but you can see that the return statement
# just returns the array declared as string[]
return $constituents;
}
Expected behavior
No warning expected
Actual behavior
Error:
RuleName Severity ScriptName Line Message
-------- -------- ---------- ---- -------
PSUseOutputTypeCorrectly Information split-key- 152 The cmdlet 'Split-KeyValuePairFormatter' returns an
value-pair object of type 'System.String' but this type is not
-formatter declared in the OutputType attribute.
.ps1
If I change OutputType to: [OutputType('System.String')], which is clearly wrong as it doesn't reflect the behaviour of the actual code, then there is no error. This does not seem right. As a work around, I'm having to declare an incorrect return type, ie System.string in [OutputType()], and put in a comment to indicate as such. Luckily, there is no effect on the functinality, but I can't omit the OutputType without PSScriptAnalyzer reporting a warning.
Environment data
> $PSVersionTable
Name Value
---- -----
PSVersion 7.0.0
PSEdition Core
GitCommitId 7.0.0
OS Microsoft Windows 10.0.18362
Platform Win32NT
PSCompatibleVersions {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0…}
PSRemotingProtocolVersion 2.3
SerializationVersion 1.1.0.1
WSManStackVersion 3.0
> (Get-Module -ListAvailable PSScriptAnalyzer).Version | ForEach-Object { $_.ToString() }
1.19.0
1.18.3
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start by reproducing the PSUseOutputTypeCorrectly warning with the Split-KeyValuePairFormatter example and inspect the rule's handling of OutputType('System.String[]'). Compare its inferred return type with the declared array type. Done means the rule accepts the string-array return without requiring an incorrect System.String declaration.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- powershell
- Domain
- tooling
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 3/5
- Estimated time
- 1-2 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 42/100