Powershell array elements results of get-childitem

Question

I am trying to write a P/S script where a set of extensions are searched and processed, but I am having issues with the file search.

This is my findFiles function -

function findFiles([string]$extension)
{
## find all files in the working directory with the fileTypes extensions
    Write-Host "in findFiles with extension" $extension
    $dotExt = "." + $extension
    $a = Get-ChildItem -Path "." -recurse | where {$_.extension -eq $dotExt} | Foreach-Object { $_.FullName }   
    Write-Host "$array length is " $a.length
    for ($i=0; $i -lt $a.length; $i++) {
        Write-Host "test: " $a[$i]
        #findVariables($a[$i])
    }
}

So when there is more than 1 file found, the results look good where each element contains the full path and the filename. However, when only a single object/file is found, the array is now storing 1 character per element. Here is the sample output of 2 config files found, and only one of type xml is found. It works fine if I add another file of type xml.

PS C:\Users\Wayne\Desktop\varSubTest> .\varSubAll.ps1
in findFiles with extension config
 length is  2
test:  C:\Users\Wayne\Desktop\varSubTest\rwar2.config
test:  C:\Users\Wayne\Desktop\varSubTest\testFolder\test2.config
in findFiles with extension properties
 length is  0
in findFiles with extension yaml
 length is  0
in findFiles with extension yml
 length is  0
in findFiles with extension json
 length is  3
test:  C:\Users\Wayne\Desktop\varSubTest\test.json
test:  C:\Users\Wayne\Desktop\varSubTest\testFolder\another.json
test:  C:\Users\Wayne\Desktop\varSubTest\testFolder\third.json
in findFiles with extension js
 length is  0
in findFiles with extension xml
 length is  56
test:  C
test:  :
test:  \
test:  U
test:  s
test:  e
test:  r
test:  s
test:  \
test:  W
test:  a
test:  y
test:  n
test:  e
test:  \
test:  D
test:  e
test:  s
test:  k
test:  t
test:  o
test:  p
test:  \
test:  v
test:  a
test:  r
test:  S
test:  u
test:  b
test:  T
test:  e
test:  s
test:  t
test:  \
test:  t
test:  e
test:  s
test:  t
test:  f
test:  o
test:  l
test:  d
test:  e
test:  r
test:  2
test:  \
test:  o
test:  n
test:  e
test:  x
test:  m
test:  l
test:  .
test:  x
test:  m
test:  l

Appreciate the help!!

Answer 1

Just declare $a as an array before you store values in it. PowerShell is designed to typecast automatically. So when you push an array into it, $a becomes an array. When you push just one value, PowerShell decides it is a string.

Either declare $a = @() in your function before you use it or do like @PetSerAl suggested and declare it on the go.