Variables in Command Throw Error

Question

I have been fighting a silly problem where when I try to use variables in a particular command I get an error, however if I use the actual variable values instead it works. Why cannot I use variables here and what is the workaround? Help please. The variables all have the correct values in them. I verified everything works until the last line is executed...

(The last line in this code throws the error...)

#####################################################################
# Prompt for user input regarding deleted and destination mailboxes #
#####################################################################

# Ask for Deleted Mailbox SMTP Address 
$DeletedMailbox = Read-Host "Enter Primary Address of Deleted Mailbox: "

# Ask for Destination Mailbox SMTP Address
$DestinationMailbox = Read-Host "Enter Primary Address of Destination Recovery Mailbox: "

#############################################################
# Query for the Exchange GUID information of both Mailboxes #
#############################################################
$DeletedGUID = Get-Mailbox -SoftDeletedMailbox -Identity $DeletedMailbox |
               Select ExchangeGUID | FT -HideTableHeaders

$DestinationGUID = Get-Mailbox -Identity $DestinationMailbox |
                   Select ExchangeGUID | FT -HideTableHeaders

############################################################################
# Initiate the Restore Request from Deleted mailbox to destination mailbox #
############################################################################
New-MailboxRestoreRequest -SourceMailbox $DeletedGUID -TargetMailbox $DestinationGUID -AllowLegacyDNMismatch

Error it Throws....

Cannot process argument transformation on parameter 'SourceMailbox'. Cannot convert
the "System.Collections.ArrayList" value of type "System.Collections.ArrayList"
to type "Microsoft.Exchange.Configuration.Tasks.MailboxIdParameter".
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidData: (:) [New-MailboxRestoreRequest], ParameterBindin...mationException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : ParameterArgumentTransformationError,New- MailboxRestoreRequest
    + PSComputerName        : ps.outlook.com

Ansgar Wiechers · Accepted Answer · 2016-01-07 21:59:35Z

2

Apparently $DeletedGUID is a list, not a single element. Either pick an element from the list:

New-MailboxRestoreRequest -SourceMailbox $DeletedGUID[0] ...

or run New-MailboxRestoreRequest in a loop:

$DeletedGUID | ForEach-Object {
  New-MailboxRestoreRequest -SourceMailbox $_ ...
}

Also, replace

...| Select ExchangeGUID | FT -HideTableHeaders

with

Select -Expand ExchangeGUID

Format-* cmdlets are for output formatting, not for things you want to process further.

answered Jan 7, 2016 at 21:59

Ansgar Wiechers

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9 Comments

Eric J. Price Over a year ago

You'll need to apply @Ansgar's [0] suggestion to both of your GUID variable calls.

Ansgar Wiechers Over a year ago

Assuming that both Get-Mailbox statements produce multiple results, yes. Another option would be to pick just one of the results (select -First 1), so the variable doesn't contain a collection in the first place.

Eric J. Price Over a year ago

Probably not in this scenario, but I've seen scenarios where Powershell will determine whether to create an array or populate a single value into a variable depending on the results. In these scenarios I usually force the return results into an array and then return the first value if I'm sure that is always what I'll want... @(Get-Mailbox -SoftDeletedMailbox -Identity $DeletedMailbox | Select -Expand ExchangeGUID)[0]

Eric J. Price Over a year ago

It looks like the Get-Mailbox function always returns an ArrayList object... technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123685(v=exchg.160).aspx

Ansgar Wiechers Over a year ago

That may be, but the pipeline should normally unroll the ArrayList, so that for an input ArrayList with only one item just that single item would remain.

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