Often you may want to remove only the first element from an array in PowerShell.
The easiest way to do so is by using the following syntax:
$new_array = $my_array[1..$my_array.length]
This particular example removes the first element from the array named $my_array and saves the results in a new array named $new_array.
Note that this syntax works by using $my_array[ ] to slice specific values from the array.
Within the brackets, we specify [1..$my_array.length] to extract all values ranging from the value in index position 1 to the last index position.
Since the first element in the array has an index position of 0, this effectively removes the first element from the array.
Example: How to Remove First Element from Array in PowerShell
Suppose that we create the following array in PowerShell named $my_array:
$my_array = 4, 15, 20, 22, 30, 45, 50
We can use the following syntax to remove the first element from the array and save the results in a new array named $new_array:
$new_array = $my_array[1..$my_array.length]
The following screenshot shows how to use this syntax in practice:
Notice that the first element of the array has been removed and the results have been saved in a new array named $new_array.
Note that you can use similar syntax to remove the first n elements from an array.
For example, you can use the following syntax to remove the first two elements from the array:
$new_array = $my_array[2..$my_array.length]
The following screenshot shows how to use this syntax in practice:
Notice that the first two elements of the array have been removed and the results have been saved in a new array named $new_array.
Feel free to replace 2 with any number you’d like to remove the first n elements from an array.
Related Tutorials
The following tutorials explain how to perform other common tasks in PowerShell:
PowerShell: How to Compare Two Arrays
PowerShell: How to Get First Item in Array
PowerShell: How to Calculate the Average of an Array
PowerShell: How to Find Duplicate Values in Array
