az vm get-instance-view not returning list when providing one ID

[VirtualEvan]

Describe the bug

According this documentation, commands which COULD return more than one object should return an array.

az vm get-instance-view --ids "$MY_IDS"

• Returns an array with objects when $MY_IDS contains more than one value.
• Returns an object when $MY_IDS contains a single value

This makes queries unreliable. For example: az vm get-instance-view --ids "$MY_IDS" --query "[].id"

Related command

az vm get-instance-view

Errors

No errors

Issue script & Debug output

After having a look at them I don't think they are relevant. Please let me know if actually required and I will spare some time to remove all the sensitive information and provide the logs.

Expected behavior

az vm get-instance-view --ids "my-vm-id" returns an array with a single object

Environment Summary

azure-cli                         2.56.0

core                              2.56.0
telemetry                          1.1.0

Extensions:
azure-devops                      0.26.0
bastion                            0.3.0

Dependencies:
msal                            1.24.0b2
azure-mgmt-resource             23.1.0b2

Python location '/opt/az/bin/python3'
Extensions directory '/home/<my_user>/.azure/cliextensions'

Python (Linux) 3.11.5 (main, Jan  8 2024, 09:08:51) [GCC 9.4.0]

Legal docs and information: aka.ms/AzureCliLegal

Your CLI is up-to-date.

Additional context

No response

[azure-client-tools-bot-prd]

Hi @VirtualEvan
Find similar issue #7818.

Issue title	az vm get-instance-view doesn’t accept multiple ids...
Create time	2018-11-12
Comment number	13

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Please confirm if this resolves your issue.

[yonzhan]

Thank you for opening this issue, we will look into it.

[VirtualEvan]

@yonzhan I noticed that you removed the "bug" tag. Maybe I misunderstood the docs, isn't an array always expected here?

For anyone facing this, I just found there is a nice JMESPATH to_array function that will ensure we are always dealing with an array.

az vm get-instance-view --ids "$MY_IDS" --query "to_array(@) | [].id"