i found out that ikhandle command would return an array of strings when called with a name that already exists in the maya scene. This will happen only if the already existing node is not at the root.
so one can reproduce the problem by :
creating two joint chains (joint1,joint2,joint3) and (joint4,joint5,joint6)
execute pm.ikHandle(name="myikhandle", startJoint="joint1", endEffector="joint3")
(this last command returns array of Pynodes)
parent myikhandle to something (creating a group is enough)
execute pm.ikHandle(name="myikhandle", startJoint="joint4", endEffector="joint6")
(this last command returns array of string)
i found out that ikhandle command would return an array of strings when called with a name that already exists in the maya scene. This will happen only if the already existing node is not at the root. so one can reproduce the problem by : creating two joint chains (joint1,joint2,joint3) and (joint4,joint5,joint6) execute pm.ikHandle(name="myikhandle", startJoint="joint1", endEffector="joint3") (this last command returns array of Pynodes) parent myikhandle to something (creating a group is enough) execute pm.ikHandle(name="myikhandle", startJoint="joint4", endEffector="joint6") (this last command returns array of string)