assign the output of an if statement to a variable powershell

Question

I am trying to assign the output of an if statement to a variable, I am New To Powershell and don't have a firm grasp of it, Any Help would be Great. Thanks!

$Var = if ($Title -eq "Service Route Rep"){
$Department = "Operations"}elseif ($Title -eq "AP Clerk"){
$Department = "Finance"}elseif($Title -eq "Product Development Manager")
$Department = "Operations"}      

$Title = "Service Route Rep"
$Department = "$var"

$user.department = "$Department"

and i receive the error

Set-ADUser : replace
At line:1 char:1
+ Set-ADUser -instance $user
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (:) [Set-ADUser], 
ADInvalidOperationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : 
ActiveDirectoryServer:0,Microsoft.ActiveDirectory.Management.Commands.SetADUser

RetiredGeek · Accepted Answer · 2021-02-13 20:15:49Z

2

For another approach, especially if you have more items to decode.

$Var = Switch ($Title){ 
           'Service Route Rep'           { 'Operations' }
           'AP Clerk'                    { 'Finance'    }
           'Product Development Manager' { 'Operations' } 
           Default                 {'Title Not in list!'}
         }

HTH

answered Feb 13, 2021 at 20:15

RetiredGeek

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RetiredGeek · Accepted Answer · 2021-02-14 17:24:14Z

2

In this scenario, you are trying to set $Var to a value based on a conditional expression. To do so, you must evaluate the expression, and return the desired output:

$Var = if ($Title -eq 'Service Route Rep'){ 'Operations' }
        elseif ($Title -eq 'AP Clerk'){ 'Finance' }
        elseif ($Title -eq 'Product Development Manager') { 'Operations' }

In your code, you are evaluating the expression, but set $Department with the desired department value. This means that the expression itself is returning $null. Then, you take the value of $Department, and overwrite it in the line $Department = "$var", which is setting $Department to $null.

I would recommend looking at using a HashTable in this case. It is a very common pattern, as it is far more readable.

$TitleMap = @{}
$TitleMap.Add('Service Route Rep', 'Operations')
$TitleMap.Add('AP Clerk', 'Finance')
$TitleMap.Add('Product Development Manager', 'Operations')

$Title = "Service Route Rep"
$Department = $TitleMap[$Title]

You will also may note that I have used single vs. double quotes, which you can read more about here.

edited Feb 14, 2021 at 17:24

RetiredGeek

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answered Feb 13, 2021 at 19:17

Brian

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1 Comment

zett42 Over a year ago

For added readability I suggest to combine the hashtable creation and the assignment of its members:

$TitleMap = @{ 'Service Route Rep' = 'Operations'; 'AP Clerk' = 'Finance'; 'Product Development Manager' = 'Operations' }

. You can replace the ; by line feed, I just can't write it as such in the comment.

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