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Powershell Export-csv I get numbers instead of text (group members export)

Answered Powershell Export-csv I get numbers instead of text (group members export)

  • Tuesday, January 29, 2013 8:21 AM
     
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    Hello,

    I have the task to find groups containing some word (for example application) , and then list all the members of these groups. In the end I need to export it to .csv file. To make things a little harder i want only the sam account names in the file. I found a script and slightly modified it to my needs - looks like that :

    $groups = Get-QADGroup | Where {$_.name -like "*application*"}
$membes=foreach ($group in $groups) {
    get-qaduser -memberof $group |foreach{$_.samaccountname}
}
$membes | Export-Csv file.csv -NoTypeInformation

    When I do it without exporting everything looks fine I get the list of users , but when I use export-csv i only get bunch of numbers instead of the names. The number in each row is equal to the number of letters in users name. If I use out-file instead of export-csv - again everything is ok. So whats wrong with export-csv ?

    I already resolved the task with out-file but i'm really curious why it doesn't work as I wanted it in thefirst place. Thanks in advance.

     

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  • Tuesday, January 29, 2013 9:53 AM
     
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    Try:

    $groups = Get-QADGroup | Where {$_.name -like "*application*"}
$members=foreach ($group in $groups) {
    get-qaduser -memberof $group | select samaccountname
} 
    $members | Export-Csv file.csv -NoTypeInformation

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


     
  • Tuesday, January 29, 2013 11:39 AM
     
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    I got the error about empty pipeline as earlier (I'm not sure why ,but that is why i used Variable $membes)  so I used that :

    $groups = Get-QADGroup | Where {$_.name -like "*appl*"}
$membes=foreach ($group in $groups) {
    get-qaduser -memberof $group | select samaccountname
} 
$membes| Export-Csv file.csv -NoTypeInformation

    But It actually worked - thank you. But could you explain why it didn't work with foreach ?

     
  • Friday, March 15, 2013 8:51 AM
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    Regarding foreach construct: it does not write things to the pipeline by defualt (unlike foreach-object cmdlet). You can either use variable (as you did) or put whole expression in subexpression: $(forech ...) | Export-Csv

    Regarding your first export: Export-Csv works on objects, and you passed strings. This object has single property, length, that is number. Rings any bells... ? ;)

    jrv passes object with single property (samaccountname), thus export will contain list of samaccountnames.

     
  • Friday, March 15, 2013 9:00 AM
     
     
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    my example was put together quickly and I just added the export without thinking.

    Bartek is correct.  foreach() does not output to pipeline but can be assigned $results=foreach(...){....}.  It is good you thought to try that.

    I will fix my example.

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

     
  • Friday, March 15, 2013 9:04 AM
     
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    Normally I would write that like this:

    Get-QADGroup | Where {$_.name -like "*application*"} |
     ForEach-Object{
          get-qaduser -memberof $group | select samaccountname
     } | Export-Csv file.csv -NoTypeInformation

    I decided to flatten it out for you so it would be more understandable but forgot to do the assignment when I converted.

    I generally just type most things as a pipeline because that I an easier way for me to think.

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯