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I am new to powershell and in need of help. My first script for work is automate the new and termed users in AD environment.

A CSV dump will be done once daily from our Peoplesoft system. I use Import-CSV and create 3 arrays (new, term and processed).

The trouble I'm having is with combining the 3 arrays once i loop through all the users and try putting it back into the file. The code breaks at the $New += $Term lines. I believe this is due to the fact that there is only 1 record of each user type (new, term and processed) in my test file (I know, add more users…can't. This may be a real world outcome for any particular day). Below is my sample code:

#Get Credentials from user
$c = Get-Credential

#Get Date for $Term array population
$e = Get-Date -format M/d/yyyy

#Set file location and variable for said file
$File = "c:\users\nmaddux\desktop\adduserstuff\test.csv"

#Import record sets for New and Term users
$New   = @()
$Term  = @()
$Procd = @()
$New   = Import-Csv $File | Where-Object {
           $_.TermDate -eq "" -and $_.LastName -ne "" -and $_.Processdate -eq ""
         }
$Term  = Import-Csv $File | Where-Object {
           $_.TermDate -ne "" -and $_.Processdate -eq "" -and $_.TermDate -le $e
         }
$Procd = Import-Csv $File | Where-Object { $_.Processdate -ne "" }

#Process both new and term users provided there are records to process for each
If ($New -ne $NULL -and $Term -ne $NULL) {
  # Some code to process users
}

$new += $term
$new += $Procd
$new | Export-Csv $file -NoTypeInformation -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

So it will export but only partial results.

error - Method invocation failed because [System.Management.Automation.PSObject] doesn't contain a method named 'op_Addition'.

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  • 1
    $New += $Term And that line is where...? Commented Feb 15, 2013 at 21:57
  • Added the code and error statement...my apologies. Commented Feb 15, 2013 at 23:18

4 Answers 4

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11

If Import-Csv only returns 1 result, then you are correct that your variable is assumed NOT to be an array, then concatenation will fail. This is not change by the fact that you have pre-initialized your variables with @(). In fact, that step isn't necessary.

To force the result to be treated as an array, you can either wrap your whole Import-Csv line in @(), or do something similar afterward.

$new = @( Import-Csv $File | Where-Object {...} )
# or
$new = Import-Csv $File | Where-Object {...}
$new = @($new)
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3 Comments

Excellent, thank you! I will try that. Side note, I tried to send all of it to a new array....ie '$total = @()' $total += $new $total += $term Then export $total it returned all three users in my test file. Why does this work and not the original?
In that case you are initializing $total as an array, then immediately doing a "plus-equal" on it. So powershell knows you are doing an array operation and acts appropriately. In your original code, you initialize $new as an array, but then re-assign it to the output of a cmdlet before doing the plus-equals. If the cmdlet returned only 1 value, powershell will have changed $new to a scalar variable, and then plus-equals doesn't make sense.
$a = @($b) + @($c) solved a similar problem for me. Thanks for the helpful answer @latkin.
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So you are importing the same CSV file 3 times? isn't it better to import it once and then set the arrays to be filtered "views" of it?

Sort of like this. You should also be able to use the "Count" value from each array as well to say whether 1 or more results were returned.

#Get Credentials from user
$c = Get-Credential

#Get Date for $Term array population
$e = Get-Date -format M/d/yyyy

#Set file location and variable for said file
$File = "c:\users\nmaddux\desktop\adduserstuff\test.csv"

#Import record sets for New and Term users
[array]$New
[array]$Term
[array]$Procd

[array]$Import = Import-Csv $File
[array]$New = $Import | ? {$_.TermDate -eq "" -and $_.LastName -ne "" -and $_.Processdate -eq ""}
[array]$Term = $Import | ? {$_.TermDate -ne "" -and $_.Processdate -eq "" -and $_.TermDate -le $e}
[array]$Procd = $Import | ? {$_.Processdate -ne ""}

#Process both new and term users provided there are records to process for each
if (($New.Count -gt 0) -and ($Term.Count -gt 0))
{
    # Some code to process users
}

$new += $term
$new += $Procd
$new | Export-Csv $file -NoTypeInformation -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
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0

You can also enforce the type by typecasting the variable:

$array = @()
$array = gci test.txt
$array.GetType()

[array]$array = @()
$array = gci test.txt
$array.GetType()

IsPublic IsSerial Name BaseType
-------- -------- ---- --------
True True FileInfo System.IO.FileSystemInfo
True True Object[] System.Array

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I know I'm coming into this discussion late, but for someone else that comes along... Since you already defined $new as an empty array, when you import from the csv you want to ADD the output to your pre-defined array, not set it equal to the output of import-csv.

$new = @()
$new += Import-Csv $File | Where-Object {
           $_.TermDate -eq "" -and $_.LastName -ne "" -and $_.Processdate -eq ""
         }
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