Powershell Add Output of Select to Variable

Question

I'd like to store the output of the command Select in a variable. Here's the original code:

# OUs to search for servers
"OU=Domain Controllers,$mydomain", "OU=Server,OU=Berlin,$mydomain" | 
# For each OU get Windows Server
ForEach { Get-ADComputer -Filter { OperatingSystem -Like '*Windows Server*' } -Properties OperatingSystem -SearchBase $_ } | 
Select -Exp Name | Add-Content C:\serverfile.txt

In the last line I'd like to change Add-Content to a command that adds the output to a variable $Servers. However I can't get the syntax right. I tried:

| Add-Content $Servers

| $Servers

"> $Servers"

$Servers += Select -Exp Name

Matt · Accepted Answer · 2015-11-25 12:48:47Z

1

Add-Content $Servers - Add-content would expect that $servers is a file path. This is not what you want. See more from Add-Content.
| $Servers - $servers is not a function, cmdlet, alias or command that accepts pipeline input. This is not what you want. Here is a video that can be a start for understanding the pipeline. Not the best example but it is a start.
"> $Servers" - Redirection is also supposed to be used for file paths (for the most part.). $servers is not a file path. This is not what you want. See more from about_redirection.

You can just assign the output from the pipeline to a variable directly. This is what you could do. Other options do exist as well like building the array inside the loop. That is unnecessary.

$servers = "OU=Domain Controllers,$mydomain", "OU=Server,OU=Berlin,$mydomain" | ForEach-Object { 
    Get-ADComputer -Filter { OperatingSystem -Like '*Windows Server*' } -Properties OperatingSystem -SearchBase $_ } | 
    Select-Object -ExpandProperty Name

Or if you need to do both output to file and variable you can use Tee-Object

"OU=Domain Controllers,$mydomain", "OU=Server,OU=Berlin,$mydomain" | ForEach-Object { 
    Get-ADComputer -Filter { OperatingSystem -Like '*Windows Server*' } -Properties OperatingSystem -SearchBase $_ } | 
    Select-Object -ExpandProperty Name | Tee-Object -Variable servers | Add-Content "C:\serverfile.txt"

In both cases $servers will contain the output.

edited Nov 25, 2015 at 12:48

answered Nov 25, 2015 at 12:36

Matt

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3 Comments

Peter Over a year ago

Thank you for the explanations. I always looked for a way to put the variable after the pipeline, but I know now that this was the wrong approach. I used the solution of @gmsoulman, it seemed to fit my script best.

Matt Over a year ago

@Peter If you start doing 1000's of computer be careful as that is a memory intensive operation. Building an array like that make PowerShell build a new array and then append the new object. Glad you found a solution.

Peter Over a year ago

Thanks for your advice. I will be doing it for only about 100 servers. And I eventually used the other solution.

Avshalom · Accepted Answer · 2015-11-25 12:22:31Z

0

You can create and array ($Servers for example) then add each result into it:

$Servers = @()
"OU=Domain Controllers,$mydomain", "OU=Server,OU=Berlin,$mydomain" | 
# For each OU get Windows Server
ForEach { $Servers += Get-ADComputer -Filter { OperatingSystem -Like '*Windows Server*' } -Properties OperatingSystem -SearchBase $_ | Select -ExpandProperty Name}

answered Nov 25, 2015 at 12:22

Avshalom

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1 Comment

G42 Over a year ago

Also, you can replace $Servers += with [array]$Servers += and avoid having to initialise the array (i.e. no need for $Servers = @().)

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