CODEWITHSUNDEEP
powershelloutput
narue1992
narue1992

Reputation: 351

Nothing prints in text file

One thing you learn about programming is always dealing with errors. In this situation, my program doesn't have errors, however; nothing seems to print. I simply want my group name and managedby information in 2 columns. Can you explain why nothing outputs?

Import-Module ActiveDirectory

$exportlist = "C:\Temp\managedby.txt"

Clear-Content $exportlist

$Header = `
"Group ID Name" + "|" + "ManagedBy"

$Header | Out-File $exportlist -Append

$list = get-adgroup -properties name, managedby -filter {name -notlike "WA*" -or name -notlike "workstation*"} `
| Select name, managedby

$listing =`
$list.name + "|" + $list.managedby

$listing | Out-File $exportlist -Append

This is what comes out when I run it in PowerShell:

PS F:\> $Header = `
>> "Group ID Name" + "|" + "ManagedBy"
>>
PS F:\> write-host $Header
Group ID Name|ManagedBy
PS F:\> $list = get-adgroup -properties name, managedby -filter {name -notlike "WA*" -or name -notlike "workstation*"} `
>> | Select name, managedby
PS F:\> $listing =`
>>    $list.name + "|" + $list.managedby
PS F:\> write-host $listing
|

Looks like $listing contains nothing?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 69

Answers (1)

Ansgar Wiechers
Ansgar Wiechers

Reputation: 200283

After thinking some more about it: the most likely scenario is probably that you're using PowerShell v2 and Get-ADGroup produces more than one result. In PowerShell v2 $list.Name would not expand to a list of the Name properties of all array elements, but the (nonexistent) property Name of the array object, thus resulting in $null, which is then cast to an empty string during the string concatenation.

Property expansion in PowerShell v2:

PS C:\Temp> $PSVersionTable.PSVersion.ToString()
2.0
PS C:\Temp> $f = Get-ChildItem
PS C:\Temp> $f

    Directory: C:\Temp

Mode                LastWriteTime     Length Name
----                -------------     ------ ----
-a---        03.12.2014     20:38          0 a.txt
-a---        03.12.2014     20:38          0 b.txt

PS C:\Temp> $f.Name
PS C:\Temp> $f | select -Expand Name
a.txt
b.txt

Property expansion in PowerShell v3:

PS C:\Temp> $PSVersionTable.PSVersion.ToString()
3.0
PS C:\Temp> $f = Get-ChildItem
PS C:\Temp> $f

    Directory: C:\Temp

Mode                LastWriteTime     Length Name
----                -------------     ------ ----
-a---        03.12.2014     20:38          0 a.txt
-a---        03.12.2014     20:38          0 b.txt

PS C:\Temp> $f.name
a.txt
b.txt
PS C:\Temp> $f | select -expand Name
a.txt
b.txt

With that said, your objective seems to be to export the names and managers of AD groups to a file, separated by | characters. However, you're trying way too hard. You can easily do it just by using the Export-Csv cmdlet, which allows you to specify whatever delimiter you like.

Import-Module ActiveDirectory

$exportlist = 'C:\Temp\managedby.txt'

$attr = 'Name', 'ManagedBy'
$fltr = { Name -notlike "WA*" -or Name -notlike "workstation*" }

Get-ADGroup -Properties $attr -Filter $fltr | Select $attr |
  Export-Csv $exportlist -NoType -Delimiter '|'

If you want the name of the manager rather than the distinguished name, use a calculated property for resolving it:

Get-ADGroup -Properties $attr -Filter $fltr |
  Select Name, @{n='ManagedBy';e={Get-ADObject -Identity $_.ManagedBy | select -Expand Name}} |
  Export-Csv $exportlist -NoType -Delimiter '|'

Upvotes: 2

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