powershell match multiple variables

Question

So I read stackoverflow a lot and it always helps me with my understanding, at the moment, I'm a bit stumped on the matching any of multiple variables and as such, thought I'd ask the exports.

A bit of background on my task.

I am a systems admin for an AD forest with multiple child domains (+4), we are going through a process to consolidate these domains into one - however, unfortunately, as each was managed independently we have comes across the age old 'duplicate SAM' issue (and will for sure come across dupe UPNs too once we start digging).

As such - I am trying to build a script to find these duplicates so I can address them with the teams who support the users in these domains.

I've got a fair way through this, I've exported a list of the SAMs for one migrating domain, and I can parse this into PS and have it look up each SAM against all of my domains and either give me a variable with the username OR $null.

So, I now just want to understand what the 'IF' command is for matching more than one variable and showing which ones match.

So, for example, from these variables...

$one="MSmith01"
$oneNT="DOMAIN1\MSmith01"
$two="MSmith01"
$twoNT="DOMAIN2\MSmith01"
$three=$null
$threeNT=$null
$four=$null
$fourNT=$null
$five="MSmith01"
$fiveNT="DOMAIN5\MSmith01"
$six=$null
$sixNT=$null

How do I write the IF command to show me if more than one variable matches??

If I write this:

if ($one -match $two -match $three -match $four -match $five -match $six) {write-host "Duplicate Found - $oneNT, $twoNT, $threeNT, $fourNT, $fiveNT, $sixNT." -foregroundcolor "yellow"}

It will show me :

Duplicate Found - DOMAIN1\MSmith01, DOMAIN2\MSmith01, , , DOMAIN5\MSmith01,.

But, if the variables are:

$one=$null
$oneNT=$null
$two="MSmith01"
$twoNT="DOMAIN2\MSmith01"
$three="MSmith01"
$threeNT="DOMAIN3\MSmith01"
$four=$null
$fourNT=$null
$five=$null
$fiveNT=$null
$six=$null
$sixNT=$null

Then the result seems to ignore the fact that DOMAIN 2 and DOMAIN3 have matching SAMs and it appears that "x -match y -match z" is really actually only comparing x and y, so I get nothing. Which is obviously incorrect.

Can anyone explain how I compare and look for ANY duplicate amongst several variables?

Thanks

To further elaborate: To get my variables I'm doing this:

$SAMAccountList=gc "C:\My Documents\Domain2SAMList.txt"

$SamAccountList | % {
$one=Get-QADUser -SamAccountName $_ -IncludedProperties SamAccountName -Server dc.domain1.local | foreach { $_.SAMAccountName }
$oneNT=Get-QADUser -SamAccountName $_ -IncludedProperties NTAccountName -Service dc.domain1.local | foreach { $_.NTAccountName }
$twoSAM=Get-QADUser -SamAccountName $_ -IncludedProperties SamAccountName -Service dc.domain2.local | foreach { $_.SAMAccountName }
$twoNT=Get-QADUser -SamAccountName $_ -IncludedProperties NTAccountName -Service dc.domain2.local | foreach { $_.NTAccountName }
#...
#...
#...etc for each domain
}

This then gives me a set of variables as I mentioned above

hysh_00 · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-22 01:25:16Z

1

I would put them in a customobject and search with the unique names.

$NAMES = @()

$NAMES  += [pscustomobject] @{name=$one;nameNT=$oneNT}
$NAMES  += [pscustomobject] @{name=$two;nameNT=$twoNT}
$NAMES  += [pscustomobject] @{name=$three;nameNT=$threeNT}
$NAMES  += [pscustomobject] @{name=$four;nameNT=$fourNT}
$NAMES  += [pscustomobject] @{name=$five;nameNT=$fiveNT}
$NAMES  += [pscustomobject] @{name=$six;nameNT=$sixNT}

$UniqueNames=($NAMES  | Sort-Object -Property name -Unique).Name

ForEach($Uniquename in $UniqueNames){

  if($Uniquename -ne $NULL){

     $SEARCH_RESULT=$NAMES|?{$_.Name -eq $Uniquename}

     if ( $SEARCH_RESULT.Count -gt 1)
     {     
            $SEARCH_RESULT
     }
  }
}

I get the following results

First data set
name         nameNT
----         ------
MSmith01     DOMAIN1\MSmith01
MSmith01     DOMAIN2\MSmith01
MSmith01     DOMAIN5\MSmith01

Second data set
name         nameNT
----         ------
MSmith01     DOMAIN2\MSmith01
MSmith01     DOMAIN3\MSmith01

edited Oct 22, 2014 at 1:25

answered Oct 21, 2014 at 7:37

hysh_00

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4 Comments

Dan Over a year ago

Hi hysh, Thanks for the response. Much appreciated. I'm going to expand on my original question to try to help myself and help you help me I hope!

Dan Over a year ago

I don't quite understand the comment about 'unique' either - as really I'm going to have a list which is either several $null variables, or several of the same SAM names. If I user a unique parameter, wouldn't I get issues with several of the variables also being $null?

hysh_00 Over a year ago

HI I updated the reply with the results. If you give me the patterns of data that you are concerned about, I might be able to help you.

Dan Over a year ago

Hi hysh, I didn't quite understand the syntax, but, I tried and tested your suggestion and it works perfectly as is. Many thanks

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