PowerShell - Attempting to structure script with less redundancy

Question

Summary: I am attempting to structure my script with less redundancy. The issue is that I am having to repeat a function for each switch although the are going to the same destination and accomplishing the same task.

Question: Is it possible to take the switch es age,name and profession and convert it to a single function?

Side Note: I am using a psobject and storing its URI, enumurating that and instantiating the $Search variable as that URI specified to each member in the psobject.

function Search-PersonnelData {
  param(
    [switch]$Name,
    [switch]$Age,
    [switch]$Profession,
    [switch]$All,
    [switch]$Less,
    [switch]$Count,
    [string]$Search,
    [string]$Limit
  )
    if ($Limit.Length -eq 0  -or ($Limit -match $invalidnumber))
    {
      $Limit = 15
      Write-Warning -Message 'Invalid limit specified, setting to 15 by default'
    }

 # HERE IS WHERE I AM REPEATING THE SAME FUNCTION OVER
    # Name Query
    if($Name)
    {
    $searchTerms = Get-QueryType -userinput Name
    $Results = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Get -Uri $apiUrl$searchTerms"?term=$Search&limit=$Limit" -WebSession $currentsession
    }
    # Age Query
    if($Age)
    {
    $searchTerms = Get-QueryType -userinput Age
    $Results = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Get -Uri $apiUrl$searchTerms"?term=$Search&limit=$Limit" -WebSession $currentsession
    }
    # Profession Query
    if($Profession)
    {
      $searchTerms = Get-QueryType -userinput 'Profession'
      $Results = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Get -Uri $apiUrl$searchTerms"?term=$Search&limit=$Limit" -WebSession $currentsession
    }
 ##########################Here is where there repeition ends###############################
    if($Results.DataBase.UUID.Count -eq 0)
    {
      Write-Warning -Message 'No results found'
      break
      }
      if($SignatureCount -eq $true)
      {
        $Results.DataBase| Group-Object | Select-Object -Property count,name -ExcludeProperty RunspaceId
      }
      if($Less -eq $true)
      {
        $Results.DataBase | Select-Object -Property $TableFormat -ExcludeProperty RunspaceId
      }
      if($All -eq $true)
      {
        $Results.DataBase | Select-Object -Property $Gridtable -ExcludeProperty RunspaceId
      }
      if($Count -eq $false -and ($less -eq $false)-and ($all -eq $false))
      {
        $Results.DataBase| Select-Object -Property $TableFormat | Format-Table -AutoSize
        $Results.DataBase | Group-Object | Select-Object -Property count,name -ExcludeProperty RunspaceId | Format-Table -AutoSize
      }
}
$EndPoints = New-Object psobject
Add-Member -InputObject $EndPoints -MemberType NoteProperty -Name 'Profession' -Value "by_profession"
Add-Member -InputObject $EndPoints -MemberType NoteProperty -Name 'Age' -Value "by_age"
Add-Member -InputObject $EndPoints -MemberType NoteProperty -Name Name -Value "by_Name"


function Get-QueryType {
  param(
    $userinput
  )
  $EndPoints.psobject.Members |
  Where-Object {$_.Name -eq $userinput } |
  ? {$_.Membertype -eq "noteproperty"} | 
  %{ $_.Value }
}

Are Name, Age, and Profession searches supposed to be mutually exclusive? It looks like you are going to overwrite $results if you have multiple switches. So it looks like you would want to use parameter sets and then do a switch statement on which set you use. — BenH
– BenH, Commented Mar 3, 2017 at 14:42
@BenH yes that is correct those switches are to be mutually exclusive. Is this the best possible structure for my script though? I feel like those functions are totally redundant and flawed. — Alexander Sinno
– Alexander Sinno, Commented Mar 3, 2017 at 14:47

4c74356b41 · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-03 15:13:01Z

3

So I would propose you use a hashtable to do the lookups:

function Search-PersonnelData {
    param(
        [ValidateSet('Name', 'Age', "Profession")]
        [string]$queryType,
        ...
    )
    ...

    $hashtable = @{
        "Name"          = "by_name"
        "Age"           = "by_age"
        "Profession"    = "by_profession"
    }

    $searchTerms = $hashtable[$queryType]
    $Results = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Get -Uri $apiUrl$searchTerms"?term=$Search&limit=$Limit" -WebSession $currentsession
    ...
}

edit, forgot to add, I dropped all this code completely:

$EndPoints = New-Object psobject
Add-Member -InputObject $EndPoints -MemberType NoteProperty -Name 'Profession' -Value "by_profession"
Add-Member -InputObject $EndPoints -MemberType NoteProperty -Name 'Age' -Value "by_age"
Add-Member -InputObject $EndPoints -MemberType NoteProperty -Name Name -Value "by_Name"


function Get-QueryType {
param(
    $userinput
)
$EndPoints.psobject.Members |
Where-Object {$_.Name -eq $userinput } |
? {$_.Membertype -eq "noteproperty"} | 
%{ $_.Value }
}

edited Mar 3, 2017 at 15:13

answered Mar 3, 2017 at 15:10

4c74356b41

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4 Comments

Alexander Sinno Over a year ago

I will attempt this change and post back with results. Thanks.

Alexander Sinno Over a year ago

This is a great fix, however, is there a clever way to auto-complete Profession, Age and Name? I am going to create some functions to alias these I think. like function age {Get-PersonnelData age}

Alexander Sinno Over a year ago

Okay, I figured it out Tab Completion does work so -QueryType will suggest Age,Profession,Name. Thanks again.

4c74356b41 Over a year ago

not only that, it will not allow anything else to be passed to it

Amir Saar · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-03 15:40:08Z

0

It's a little bit long, but I think you can do the following:

($Name,'Name'), ($Age,'Age'), ($Profession,'Profession') | % { if ($_[0]) { $searchTerms = Get-QueryType -userinput $_[1], $Results = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Get -Uri $apiUrl$searchTerms"?term=$Search&limit=$Limit" -WebSession $currentsession} }

And BTW, You used correctly most of the times the if with boolean vars, and you can save lots of lines if you change other part on your code like this:

if($Limit.Length -eq 0), if($SignatureCount -eq $true)

to:

if(-not $limit), if($SignatureCount)

answered Mar 3, 2017 at 15:40

Amir Saar

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