powershell -Or operator not working

Question

Can someone tell me why the -or does not work. If I run the code the first output is administrator which returns true but when it gets to the kahuna account it still returns false not true.

(Get-LocalUser).Name | Out-File C:\localusers.txt

ForEach ($User in Get-Content C:\localusers.txt)
{
    If ($User -match "administrator" -or "kahuna")
    {
        Write-Host True
    }
    Else
    {
        Write-Host False
    }
}

I get

True, False, False, False, False

Here are the accounts listed in order they appear

administrator, DefaultAccount, Guest, Kahuna, PCUser

Do you really get True, False, False, False, False? I expect it would be True, True, True, True, True, because not empty string result in $true, when converted to [bool]. So, your logical expression equivalent to ($User -match "administrator") -or $true, which should always return $true. — user4003407
– user4003407, Commented Apr 12, 2017 at 1:41

Nick · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-11 23:45:37Z

14

Try

If ($User -match "administrator" -or $User -match "kahuna")

Your -or operator doesn't tie the values of the previous operator together. You need to specify a 2nd conditional operator after -or I believe.

answered Apr 11, 2017 at 23:45

Nick

1,8631 gold badge17 silver badges18 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

Miguel De Santiago Over a year ago

Awesome thanks! I could swear I used that before and it didn't work... well now it's working.

sadtank · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-09 17:22:46Z

4

Nick is right, vote up his answer. You can also use parens if that is easier to see:

 If (($User -match "administrator") -or ($User -match "kahuna"))

The parens are implied and PSH sees them there anyway. With or without the parens, $User = "administrator" would first resolve to:

If (($true) -or ($false))

which resolves to $true.

edited Feb 9, 2019 at 17:22

answered Apr 12, 2017 at 0:02

sadtank

3401 silver badge12 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

powershell -Or operator not working

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related