Using Variable in Filter

Question

I'm trying to query AD for a list of users from their Surname, which are help in a list.

I've tried most of the afternoon, but I just get a blank Excel sheet.

Also I want to know if there is more than one person with that username in AD, no idea how to even start with that one.

What I have so far:

Import-module ActiveDirectory 
$names = get-content c:\tempfiles\Final.txt
$names | ForEach-Object {
$ADUserParams=@{ 
'Searchbase' = 'OU=Administrators,OU=Locations,DC=The,DC=group,DC=com' 
'Searchscope'= 'Subtree' 
}
get-aduser @ADUserParams  -filter 'surname -like "$Names*"' | Select-Object Samaccountname, UserPrincipalName | export-csv C:\TempFiles\Usernames.csv
}

Do I even need a filter if it's a foreach-object? And is there a way to then check AD within that OU if there are more than one surname that are the same, and how would I count them? I can pull out a list of users surnames and then run the following, but it's then a manual task to locate the missing names. (If that makes sense)

What I have for that so far is:

get-content C:\TempFiles\Users.txt | sort -u > C:\TempFiles\users_cleaned.txt

Inside your ForEach-Object scriptblock you should be referencing $_ instead of $names. — Jeff Zeitlin
– Jeff Zeitlin, Commented Mar 30, 2017 at 15:00
'surname -like "$Names*" should it be 'surname -like "$_.Names*" — Norrin Rad
– Norrin Rad, Commented Mar 30, 2017 at 15:02
Sorry was in a rush to leave and idn't read all your comment.. :) replace name with $_ — Norrin Rad
– Norrin Rad, Commented Mar 30, 2017 at 15:04
@NorrinRad - No. The assumption here is that the file C:\tempfiles\Final.txt is a text file with one name per line; it's not a CSV with one column. Therefore, $Names is an array with one name per entry, rather than being a "record" with fields. So, your filter should be "surname -like '$_'" - note especially that the outer quotes are double quotes, allowing the variable to be expanded. The single inner quotes do not affect expansion, in this case. — Jeff Zeitlin
– Jeff Zeitlin, Commented Mar 30, 2017 at 15:07
"Also I want to know if there is more than one person with that username in AD": Usernames have to be unique in AD. Do you mean more than one person with that surname? — Mark Wragg
– Mark Wragg, Commented Mar 30, 2017 at 15:08

Mark Wragg · Accepted Answer · 2018-08-01 13:47:27Z

1

This should do it (however is untested as I don't have access to an AD right now):

Import-module ActiveDirectory 
$names = get-content c:\tempfiles\Final.txt

$ADUserParams=@{ 
    'Searchbase' = 'OU=Administrators,OU=Locations,DC=The,DC=group,DC=com' 
    'Searchscope'= 'Subtree' 
}

$names | ForEach-Object {
    $CurrentUser = get-aduser @ADUserParams -filter "surname -like '$_*'" | Select-Object Samaccountname, UserPrincipalName

    If ($CurrentUser) {

        If ($CurrentUser.Count -gt 1){ $DuplicateSurname = $true }Else{ $DuplicateSurname=$false }

        $CurrentUser | ForEach-Object {
            $_ | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name DuplicateSurname -Value $DuplicateSurname
            Write-Output $_
        }
    } Else {
        Write-Warning "$_* did not matched any users."
    }

} | export-csv C:\TempFiles\Usernames.csv

Explanation:

Within a ForEach-Object loop the current item in the pipeline is represented by $_. You also need to use double quotes for the filter string, as variables (like $_) are expanded in double quoted strings, not single quoted strings.

You don't need to declare your $ADUserParams hashtable within the loop (that's wasteful) so I moved it outside.

The result of Get-ADUser will be returned to the pipeline, so finally I moved the | export-csv outside of the ForEach-Object so that the result of the processing is piped in to it. I think without this you'd only get the final result.

"Also I want to know if there is more than one person with that username in AD"

To handle this I have put a second ForEach-Object that loops through every user returned in to $CurrentUser and adds a "DuplicateSurname" property to the object (which should then be an additional column in your CSV) based on whether the count of $CurrentUser is more than 1 or not.

Finally we have to make sure that the contents of $_ are put back in to the pipeline which we do with Write-Object $_.

edited Aug 1, 2018 at 13:47

answered Mar 30, 2017 at 15:12

Mark Wragg

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5 Comments

Norrin Rad Over a year ago

Hi Thanks all for your explanations, making it very clear to understand where I was going wrong. The username duplicates would be when I extract the user using the surname I need to know first if there is more than 1 person with that surname i.e. Smith? A smith or b.smith etc .. once again thanks for your help and advice. Much appreciated

Mark Wragg Over a year ago

I have amended my answer to attempt to get you whether surnames are duplicated or not as an additional property on the object.

Norrin Rad Over a year ago

Thjanks MarkAdd-Member : Cannot bind argument to parameter 'InputObject' because it is null. At line:16 char:24 + $_ | Add-Member <<<< -MemberType NoteProperty -Name DuplicateSurname -Value $DuplicateSurname

Norrin Rad Over a year ago

Sorry pressed enter again ... I'm getting the error message when I run the script, however it does still produce an out put. The error is ....................Add-Member : Cannot bind argument to parameter 'InputObject' because it is null. At line:16 char:24 + $_ | Add-Member <<<< -MemberType NoteProperty -Name DuplicateSurname -Value $DuplicateSurname

Mark Wragg Over a year ago

That will be because sometimes the surname in your file matches 0 users in that part of AD. I've added an If block to catch that with an Else block that writes a warning message to the console so you can see what didn't match. This uses write-warning which I think requires you're using PS v3 or above (maybe v4, not sure).

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