PowerShell: How to apply multiple filters via where-object cmdlet?

Question

Is there a better way to filter for objects via where-object then to send the data through multiple pipelines?

$clients = Get-ADComputer 
                -SearchBase "OU=Clients,DC=contoso,DC=com" 
                -Filter * 
                -Properties Description,OperatingSystem

$clients | Where OperatingSystem -notlike "*Windows 7*" 
                 | Where OperatingSystem -notlike "*Windows 10*"

Ideal would be a complex filtering mechanism like we can use for the -Filter Parameter. I would have expected to be able to use something like the following...

$Clients | Where { 
    (OperatingSystem -notlike "Windows 7") -and (OperatingSystem -notlike "Windows 10")
}

As @PetSerAl pointed out your issue is accessing the property correctly. -AND works fine in a Where-Object filter. — EBGreen
– EBGreen, Commented Feb 14, 2018 at 15:28

Bacon Bits · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-14 18:30:20Z

3

$clients | Where OperatingSystem -notlike "*Windows 7*" |
    Where OperatingSystem -notlike "*Windows 10*"

Strictly speaking, this should work.

However, the problem you're running in to is that the simplified Where-Object syntax shown above only works in the most simple cases. When you use the full syntax, you must specify the properties using the $_ variable:

$clients | Where-Object {
    ($_.OperatingSystem -notlike '*Windows 7*') -and ($_.OperatingSystem -notlike '*Windows 10*')
}

However, since you're using Get-ADComputer, you really should be using the -Filter property on that command. It will be much faster, and will be less work for your domain controller, too:

Get-ADComputer -SearchBase "OU=Clients,DC=contoso,DC=com" `
    -Filter "(OperatingSystem -notlike '*Windows 7*') -and (OperatingSystem -notlike '*Windows 10*')" `
    -Properties Description,OperatingSystem

answered Feb 14, 2018 at 18:30

Bacon Bits

32.5k6 gold badges64 silver badges79 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

Matthias Güntert Over a year ago

Thanks for replying. I am aware of the burden put on the network and the domain controller. But to my apology I have to add, that I was doing further processing on the data, requiring more then just "Windows 7" objects, ... so pulling "all" data (noting the -searchBase restriction) was the better approach.

Bill_Stewart · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-14 16:27:35Z

1

It is more efficient to filter directly in the query rather than filtering after-the-fact using Where-Object (which retrieves all objects first). Example using the -LDAPFilter parameter:

Get-ADComputer -LDAPFilter "(&(!operatingSystem=Windows 7*)(!operatingSystem=Windows 10*))" -Properties operatingSystem,description

answered Feb 14, 2018 at 16:27

Bill_Stewart

24.9k5 gold badges55 silver badges70 bronze badges

1 Comment

veefu Over a year ago

This comes up so many times it should be in a PowerShell FAQ. Active Directory is a database. You would never retrieve all columns on all tables from your SQL database then filter it in application memory. LDAP is no different.

ps1psm1 · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-14 14:28:34Z

-1

Something like this perhaps?

$DesktopClients=@('Windows 7','Windows 10')
$Clients=$Clients -notmatch ($DesktopClients -join '|')

answered Feb 14, 2018 at 14:28

ps1psm1

1444 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

PowerShell: How to apply multiple filters via where-object cmdlet?

3 Answers 3

1 Comment

1 Comment

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

1 Comment

1 Comment

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related