How to return meaningful results from type PSMethod

Question

I'm doing a simple API call to a government database. I am interested in the address field. Although it looks like a hash, I can't get the values.

Here is the API call:

$searchTerm = "01446754"
$url = "https://api.companieshouse.gov.uk/search?q=$searchTerm"
$apiKey = "myregisteredapikey"

$authVal = "Basic " + [System.Convert]::ToBase64String([System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8.GetBytes($apikey))

$header = @{
    "Authorization"=$authVal
}

$response = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $url -Headers $header -Method Get -ContentType 'application/json' 
$results = $response.items
$results

In this example, searching by company number, I get the following dataset returned:

links                  : @{self=/company/01446754}
description_identifier : {incorporated-on}
kind                   : searchresults#company
company_status         : active
address                : @{premises=Lakeside Works Rocester; postal_code=ST14 5JP; locality=Staffordshire; address_line_1=Uttoxeter}
date_of_creation       : 1979-09-05
address_snippet        : Lakeside Works Rocester, Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, ST14 5JP
description            : 01446754 - Incorporated on  5 September 1979
company_type           : ltd
company_number         : 01446754
title                  : JCB LIMITED

All good, until I do $results.Address which returns:

OverloadDefinitions                                                                                        
-------------------                                                                                        
System.Object&, mscorlib, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089 Address(int )

I am not sure what this is telling me. Intellisense adds a bracket to the end; (which, I think) suggests it is an object, so I tried:

PS C:\> $results.Address()
Cannot find an overload for "Address" and the argument count: "0".
At line:1 char:1
+ $results.Address()
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : MethodCountCouldNotFindBest

Clearly, I don't know what I am doing here, but I tried to use one of the fields returned in the 'address' hash:

PS C:\> $results.Address('postal_code')
Cannot convert argument "0", with value: "postal_code", for "Address" to type "System.Int32": "Cannot convert value "postal_code" to type "System.Int32". Error: "Input 
string was not in a correct format.""
At line:1 char:1
+ $results.Address('postal_code')
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : MethodArgumentConversionInvalidCastArgument

So it seems to want an integer, so I tried:

PS C:\> $results.Address(1)
Exception calling "Address" with "1" argument(s): "Operation could destabilize the runtime."
At line:1 char:1
+ $results.Address(1)
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodInvocationException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : VerificationException

Ok, lets look at what type 'address' is:

PS C:\> $results.Address.gettype()

IsPublic IsSerial Name                                     BaseType                                                                                                      
-------- -------- ----                                     --------                                                                                                      
True     False    PSMethod                                 System.Management.Automation.PSMethodInfo

So how do I get the values out of the object of type PSMethod?

How to return meaningful results from type PSMethod

1 Answers