Another Empty Pipe Error when Export CSV used

PowerShell Help
1

Powershell 2 user here. Not allowed to use version 3 yet.
Having a weird error when trying to export

# Grab Users from List

$Userlist = Get-Content c:\inputfiles\Users.txt

# Iterate through list using Foreach

foreach($User in $UserList) {

# Grab Username, ExServName, Applicable Mailbox info
     get-aduser $User -property name, msExchHomeServerName, mDBStorageQuota, mDBOverQuotaLimit, mDBOverHardQuotaLimit, mDBUseDefaults | select name, msExchHomeServerName, mDBStorageQuota, mDBOverQuotaLimit, mDBOverHardQuotaLimit, mDBUseDefaults 

# Export results to out.csv
} | export-csv out.csv

With 

| export-csv out.csv
after the last curley bracket, I get the empty pipe element is not allowed error.

If I place it after mDBUseDefaults but before the last curley bracket, it works, but only records the information from the last user in the list of users.

Where’s my major malfunction?

2

The problem is using foreach.

This throws the same error

£> $processes = Get-Process
£> foreach ($i in 1..5){$processes[$i]} | Export-Csv test.csv
At line:1 char:38

  • foreach ($i in 1..5){$processes[$i]} | Export-Csv test.csv
  •                                  ~

An empty pipe element is not allowed.
+ CategoryInfo : ParserError: (:slight_smile: , ParentContainsErrorRecordException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : EmptyPipeElement

You are using the foreach keyword rather than foreach which is an alias of Foreach-Object

if I change my loop to this

1..5 | foreach{$processes[$_]} | Export-Csv test.csv

it works

I think your code needs to become

Get-Content c:\inputfiles\Users.txt |
foreach{

Grab Username, ExServName, Applicable Mailbox info

 get-aduser $_ -property name, msExchHomeServerName, mDBStorageQuota, mDBOverQuotaLimit, mDBOverHardQuotaLimit, mDBUseDefaults | select name, msExchHomeServerName, mDBStorageQuota, mDBOverQuotaLimit, mDBOverHardQuotaLimit, mDBUseDefaults

Export results to out.csv

} | export-csv out.csv
3

You can’t pipe the result of a foreach loop to anything (which is different from the ForEach-Object cmdlet). There are a couple of ways you could change your code:

Preferred method (not saving the entire contents of the Users.txt file in memory, but processing one line at a time:

# Iterate through list using Foreach

Get-Content c:\inputfiles\Users.txt |
ForEach-Object {
# Grab Username, ExServName, Applicable Mailbox info
     get-aduser $_ -property name, msExchHomeServerName, mDBStorageQuota, mDBOverQuotaLimit, mDBOverHardQuotaLimit, mDBUseDefaults | select name, msExchHomeServerName, mDBStorageQuota, mDBOverQuotaLimit, mDBOverHardQuotaLimit, mDBUseDefaults 

# Export results to out.csv
} | export-csv out.csv

Another option to force a foreach loop to pipe its results somewhere (placing the loop into a subexpression, and piping the results of the subexpression to the next command):

# Grab Users from List

$Userlist = Get-Content c:\inputfiles\Users.txt

# Iterate through list using Foreach

$(
    foreach($User in $UserList) {

        # Grab Username, ExServName, Applicable Mailbox info
         get-aduser $User -property name, msExchHomeServerName, mDBStorageQuota, mDBOverQuotaLimit, mDBOverHardQuotaLimit, mDBUseDefaults | select name, msExchHomeServerName, mDBStorageQuota, mDBOverQuotaLimit, mDBOverHardQuotaLimit, mDBUseDefaults 

        # Export results to out.csv
    }
) | export-csv out.csv

And a third option, the same sort of idea (instead of a subexpression, placing the foreach loop into a script block and invoking it, then piping the results of that script block to the next command):

# Grab Users from List

$Userlist = Get-Content c:\inputfiles\Users.txt

# Iterate through list using Foreach

& {
    foreach($User in $UserList) {

       # Grab Username, ExServName, Applicable Mailbox info
        get-aduser $User -property name, msExchHomeServerName, mDBStorageQuota, mDBOverQuotaLimit, mDBOverHardQuotaLimit, mDBUseDefaults | select name, msExchHomeServerName, mDBStorageQuota, mDBOverQuotaLimit, mDBOverHardQuotaLimit, mDBUseDefaults 

       # Export results to out.csv
    }
} | export-csv out.csv
4

Thanks for the response!

I went with

# Input Users from text file
$USERS = Get-Content C:\inputfiles\USERS.txt

#pipe variable through to get requisite information and export the information to csv
$USERS|Foreach{Get-ADUser $_ -Properties * |Select Surname, GivenName, SAMAccountName, Loc, msExchHomeServerName, mDBStorageQuota, mDBOverQuotaLimit, mDBOverHardQuotaLimit, mDBUseDefaults}|Export-CSV -Path C:\outputfiles\UserEMail.csv -notype

Seems to work fine. I just have to putz around in excel to do a 

=RIGHT(E2,13)
to make the exchange server name a bit more readable. (no biggie)

I appreciate you taking the time to show me the “why” as much as the “what” when things go wrong.

5

I get those two confused STILL(!) at times. Then I look really dumb, lol.

Thanks for the examples! It really helps me understand better when I can compare the different ways to gather the data.

As I said to Richard, I do appreciate it even more when you explain it to me because seeing the solution -with- the explanation of where/why I went wrong.

That seems to be the best way I have found so far to learn Powershell. (I’ve never really been a programmer but I am liking powershell more and more each time I learn something new!)

6

Alternatively you can also wrap the foreach-construct in the $(…) notation, this will force the entire loop to complete before piping it into the next cmdlet. I do recommend using the pipeline properly, but it might be interesting to know another method of working with foreach:

`
$(
    foreach ($i in 1..5) {
        $i
    }
) | ForEach-Object { $_ }
`