Lazy Administrator: Split the list.

Hello All, I am back with a new trick I generally use when I am not in the mood to use .csv files for testing to work with some data. Primarily working with some user, group or computer objects in Active Directory.

Many times I had a need to make bulk changes to security groups or user account to change the description, etc...

As a smat administrator will you test your PowerShell script with a few groups or accounts?

I will definitely test to be sure and not make mistakes. But, at the same time my inner lazy admin wakes up and does not want to create a new .csv file with a test object and use it in the script by changing the name using the new file path.

So, I found a solution to copy the list of users in the script and process it to get the desired output.

Close your mouth.. It is possible. One can use the data from a simple text format and split it to multiple values.

I will now simply try to store 3 security groups in a variable named $data, like it has been copied from a .csv file when opened in Excel.

 PS C:\Users\rsingh> $data = "TestGroup1
>> testgroup2
>> testgroup3
>> testgroup4"
 

Now, if I try to display the value using the variable in the console, the output seems ok.

It seems all the groups are displayed.

PS C:\Users\rsingh> $data
TestGroup1
testgroup2
testgroup3
testgroup4

What is wron in the above output?

Assuming the above output is perfect, I want to print the first value "TestGroup1".

I will use the index value to do so. The output is not as expected. It is only one letter of the first group. Let's fix this.

PS C:\Users\rsingh> $data[0]
T
PS C:\Users\rsingh> $data[1]
e
PS C:\Users\rsingh> $data[3]
t

In order to get each group separately, I will process the $data to split the text based on the new line and trim it to remove any extra spaces.

PS C:\Users\rsingh> $data = $data.Split("`n").Trim()

After processing the $data with Split() and Trim() the output with the index values is the full group name.

PS C:\Users\rsingh> $data[0]
TestGroup1
PS C:\Users\rsingh> $data[1]
testgroup2
PS C:\Users\rsingh> $data[2]
testgroup3

Now, a real world example.

Below is a script to generate the details of the security groups added directly into a variable.

## data stored in a simple text format, each value in a new line.
$data = "TestGroup1
testgroup2
testgroup3
testgroup4"

## Processing the data using split() function and trim() function
    $data = $data.Split("`n").Trim()

## Created new valriable to keep track of the count of iterations in the loop
$i = 0

## Created new variable as an empty array to be used later 
$output = @()

## Starting the for loop to process the records from the list stored in $data
foreach($record in $data)
{
    ## Increasing the count
    $i++
    
    ## Screen message with the count and the record being processed
    Write-Host "Working on record number:: $($i) and the value being processed is :: $($record)"
    
    ## Storing the output in the array
    $output+= Get-ADGroup -Identity $record | select SamAccountName,DistinguishedName
}
## Diplaying the out on the console screen
$output

Working on record number:: 1 and the value being processed is :: TestGroup1

The output looks clean. Script broke the list into objects and processed it to get the security group details.

Working on record number:: 2 and the value being processed is :: testgroup2
Working on record number:: 3 and the value being processed is :: testgroup3
Working on record number:: 4 and the value being processed is :: testgroup4

SamAccountName DistinguishedName                          
-------------- -----------------                          
TestGroup1     CN=TestGroup1,OU=TestOU,DC=designbots,DC=in
TestGroup2     CN=TestGroup2,OU=TestOU,DC=designbots,DC=in
TestGroup3     CN=TestGroup3,OU=TestOU,DC=designbots,DC=in
TestGroup4     CN=TestGroup4,OU=TestOU,DC=designbots,DC=in

Note: I have worked with script on maximum of 7000 objects till now and haven't faced any issue.

Try it yourself and if you find it useful. Share, like and comment.