Check for blank values in csv or not?

PowerShell Help
1

Running the commands below will generate errors when there are blank values in the csv, it does continue through the loop and completes. Since it continues through the loop is there a need to check for blank values? Will this slow the script down?

I eventually want to build this out to include all the ad attributes, then I can just update the csv file when I need to make bulk changes. This would leave lots of blank values in the csv. I’m just not sure if there are any cons to this?

Import-Module ActiveDirectory
$inputFile = Import-CSV c:\it\bulk_edit.csv
foreach($line in $inputFile)
{Set-ADUser -Identity $line.samaccountname -add @{pager=$line.pager}}
2

Take a look at this:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/e8076f34-c246-42fd-a5c4-29ec0d7ba780/update-users-attributes?forum=winserverpowershell#24ba89be-5634-429a-8acf-0d229f32fadb

it might help you.

3

It is generally faster to avoid errors than to cause and/or suppress them, yes. One possible approach is something like…

$SkipAttributes = @('SamAccountName')
foreach ($Line in $InputFile) {
    $Attributes = @{} # blank hashtable to start
    $PropertiesToCheck =  $Line.PSObject.Properties.Name | Where-Object {$_ -notin $SkipAttributes}
    foreach ($Property in $Line.PSObject.Properties.Name) {
        if ($Line.$Property.Trim()) {
            # if the property has anything in it other than blank space, add it in!
            $Attributes.Add($Property, $Line.$Property)
        }
    }
    
    Set-ADUser -Identity $Line.SamAccountName -Add $Attributes
}
4

This code works for updating user attributes. I’d like to use the same script to clear or remove attributes but not sure how to do that. The help on Set-AdUser -Instance says it only updates object properties. I tried adding $null to the csv values but that didn’t do what I hoped.

 $props = 'GivenName','Surname','DisplayName','OfficePhone','City','State','Country',
         'MobilePhone','EmailAddress','Title','Department','Company','ipPhone'
Import-CSV c:\it\bulk_edit.csv |
    ForEach-Object{
        if($u = Get-AdUser $_.samaccountname -Properties $props)
        {
            $u.GivenName = $_.firstname
            $u.Surname = $_.lastname
            $u.DisplayName = $_.displayname
            $u.OfficePhone = $_.Mobilenumber
            $u.City = $_.city
            $u.State = $_.state
            $u.Country = $_.Country
            $u.MobilePhone = $_.mobilephone
            $u.EmailAddress = $_.emailaddress
            $u.Title = $_.jobtitle
            $u.Department = $_.department
            $u.Company = $_.company
            $u.ipPhone = $_.ipphone
            Set-AdUser -Instance $u
        }
        else
            {
            Write-Host 'User not found'
             }

    }
5

You can use Set-ADObject for this, an example from the documentation is

C:\PS>Set-ADObject "cdadd380-d3a8-4fd1-9d30-5cf72d94a056" -Remove @{url="www.contoso.com"} -Replace @{description="Antonio Alwan (European Manager)"}

And the documentation is here

6

Could I check if the csv has a $null value if so run the -clear parameter. if it’s anything other than $null set it to that value. Just not sure how to add that into my existing code and how to avoid $null being adding back as a value.

7

Yes, its possible, but I would like you to take some more time, put some thoughts, I can give you hints.

  • Read the CSV
  • Iterate for each row
  • Check the value for null
  • If null calll -clear
  • Else call Set.

Let us know if you still find difficulty, we are here to help you.

8

Splatting is what you want:

#Set default switches that will always have a value
#that you are going to pass wot Set-ADUser
$setParams = @{
    GivenName    = $_.firstname
    Surname      = $_.lastname
    DisplayName  = $_.displayname
    OfficePhone  = $_.Mobilenumber
    City         = $_.city
    State        = $_.state
    Country      = $_.Country
    EmailAddress = $_.emailaddress
    Title        = $_.jobtitle
    Department   = $_.department
    Company      = $_.company
}

#if the user has a value in mobile phone, then add the Mobile phone attribute
if ( $_.mobilephone ) { $setParams.Add('MobilePhone', $_.mobilephone) }

#Custom params are a little more difficult, but you are still just working
#with hashtables.  This would hold all attributes that don't have switches
#in Set-ADUser
$customParams = @{}
#IP Phone is not a supported switch, if you want to set it,
#it would need to be done with a custom hashtable with -Add or -Replace
if ( $_.ipphone ) { $customParams.Add('ipPhone', $_.ipphone) }
#See if we added custom params, if we did then add the Replace switch
#with those attributes
if ($customParams) { $setParams.Add('Replace',$customParams) }

Set-AdUser @setParams
9

Rob, that won’t work for any parameters that don’t have a defined parameter on the cmdlet. Only a subset of all settable properties have explicit parameters on the cmdlet, the rest being relegated to being passed into the cmdlet as a hashtable to -Add or -Replace.

10

[quote quote=118063]Yes, its possible, but I would like you to take some more time, put some thoughts, I can give you hints.

  • Read the CSV
  • Iterate for each row
  • Check the value for null
  • If null calll -clear
  • Else call Set.
Let us know if you still find difficulty, we are here to help you.[/quote]

Yea…I’m trying. This is not easy for me but I’m trying. I started from scratch and already ran into errors

Import-CSV c:\it\bulk_edit.csv | ForEach-Object {

$parma = @{

samaccountname = $_.samaccountname
pager          = $_.pager
state          = $_.state
            }

        Set-ADUser -instance $parma

}

This gives the error

Set-ADUser : Objects provided to this cmdlet must be search results.
At line:13 char:9

  •     Set-ADUser -instance $parma

  •     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    • CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (:slight_smile: [Set-ADUser], ArgumentException
    • FullyQualifiedErrorId : ActiveDirectoryCmdlet:System.ArgumentException,Microsoft.ActiveDirectory.Management.Commands.SetADUser
11

Below is an untested example.

$ParamHash = @{}

#For one property
Import-CSV c:\it\bulk_edit.csv | ForEach-Object -Process {
   if($null -eq $_.State){
        $ParamHash.Clear = @($_.State)
    }
    else{
        $ParamHash.State = $_.State
    }
    $ParamHash.Identity = $_.Identity
}

Set-AdUser @ParamHash

#Or
#For multiple properties
$CSV = Import-Csv c:\CsvPath.csv 
$Property = $CSV | Get-Member -MemberType NoteProperty | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Name
$CSV | ForEach-Object -Process {
    $Item = $_
    $Property | ForEach-Object -Process {
        if($Null -eq $_.$Item){
            $ParamHash.Clear = $_.$Item
        }
        else{
            $ParamHash.$Item = $_.$Item
        }
    }
}

Set-AdUser @ParamHash
12

So what I’m trying to do is check for a value of remove if that exists I want to run set-aduser -clear if not then I’ll run set-aduser -instance $u to add the values.

here is the csv

samaccountname,state,pager
testguy,KU,nopager
testguy2,MO,remove

If I output $u I can see the testguy2 does have remove set for the pager.

BUT when I try to check $u for the word remove it never finds it.

$props = 'GivenName','Surname','DisplayName','OfficePhone','City','State','Country',
         'MobilePhone','EmailAddress','Title','Department','Company','pager'

Import-CSV c:\it\bulk_edit.csv |
    ForEach-Object{

       $u = Get-ADUser $_.samaccountname -Properties $props

            $u.State = $_.state
            $u.pager = $_.pager           

         #  Set-AdUser -Instance $u

         if ($u -like '*remove*') 
            {Write-host 'Yes it contains remove'}

         else 

         {write-host 'nope'}

            }
13

You cannot do,

if ($u -like '*remove*')

You have to select the property from the object $u to check



if ($u.state -like ‘remove’)

14

@Joel,

That is what this code was doing:

#Custom params are a little more difficult, but you are still just working
#with hashtables.  This would hold all attributes that don't have switches
#in Set-ADUser
$customParams = @{}
#IP Phone is not a supported switch, if you want to set it,
#it would need to be done with a custom hashtable with -Add or -Replace
if ( $_.ipphone ) { $customParams.Add('ipPhone', $_.ipphone) }
#See if we added custom params, if we did then add the Replace switch
#with those attributes
if ($customParams) { $setParams.Add('Replace',$customParams) }
15

Arg…thought I had this figured out. It worked when I had one if statement but when I added a second it pukes this out

cmdlet ForEach-Object at command pipeline position 2
Supply values for the following parameters:
Process[0]:

$props = 'GivenName','Surname','DisplayName','OfficePhone','City','State','Country',
         'MobilePhone','EmailAddress','Title','Department','Company','pager'

Import-CSV c:\it\bulk_edit.csv |
    ForEach-Object
    {

       $u = Get-ADUser $_.samaccountname -Properties $props

            $u.State = $_.state
            $u.pager = $_.pager  
                     
         if ($u.state -contains 'remove') 

            {Set-ADUser $_.samaccountname -clear state} else {Set-ADUser -identity $_.samaccountname -replace @{state=$u.state}}

         if ($u.pager -contains 'remove') 

            {Set-ADUser $_.samaccountname -clear pager} else {Set-ADUser -identity $_.samaccountname -replace @{pager=$u.pager}}

  
     }
16

its not because of second if statement, you have to put the end flower/curly bracket after ForEach-Object cmdlet.

ForEach-Object { … }
#or
ForEach-Object -Process { … }

# {} script block is value for -Process parameter which is mandatory and should be on the same line.

I would strongly recommend you start reading the help documentation Get-Help ForEach-Object -Full. You have to invest some time in learning the basics, else yourself will spent a lot of time in understanding similar things foreach requirements.

17

kvprasoon…it is in the curly bracket.

18

Nevermind…I see I had it in the wrong place.

19

Ok… This code does everything I need it to do. The only problem is what I originally asked, this will spit out errors when the csv does not contain a value for any of these props. It continues and completes just fine.

From my research, I would need to check every value for $null remove it or add it to a new hashtable then I’d still need to run another check for the word remove and possibly add it to a separate hashtable. It just seems like a lot of overhead just to eliminate errors. So I’m torn if I should just suppress the errors or call it good.

I did play around with checking the value like below but when you look at the hashtable it doesn’t seem to have done anything. The blank value is still in the table.

if ($user.pager) {$hash.add(“pager”, $($user.pager))}

Name Value

state AU
pager remove
samaccountname testguy
state Ma
pager pager1234
samaccountname testguy2
state mo
pager
samaccountname erererer

  $props = 'description','office','OfficePhone','mail','WWWHomePage','StreetAddress','POBox',
'l','st','PostalCode','Country','ProfilePath','ScriptPath','HomeDirectory','HomePhone','Pager','Mobile','ipphone','otherFacsimileTelephoneNumber','otherHomePhone','otheripphone',
'otherMobile','otherpager','title','company','department','proxyaddresses'
Import-CSV c:\it\bulk_edit.csv |
    ForEach-Object {
       $u = Get-ADUser $_.samaccountname -Properties $props
        #the $_. can match what is in the csv file
            $u.description = $_.description
            $u.office = $_.office
            $u.OfficePhone = $_.officephone
            $u.mail = $_.officephone
            $U.WWWHomePage = $_.webpage
            $U.StreetAddress = $_.street
            $u.POBox = $_.pobox
            $u.l = $_.city
            $u.st = $_.stateprovince
            $u.PostCode = $_.zip
            $u.Country = $_.county
            $u.ProfilePath = $_.profilepath
            $u.ScriptPath = $_.logonscript
            $u.HomeDirectory = $_.homedirectory #needs to be drive letter/folder
            $u.HomePhone = $_.homephone
            $u.Pager = $_.pager
            $u.Mobile = $_.mobile
            $u.ipphone = $_.ipphone
            $u.otherFacsimileTelephoneNumber = $_.otherfaxnumber
            $u.otherHomePhone = $_.otherhomephone
            $u.otheripphone = $_.otheripphone
            $u.otherMobile = $_.othermobile
            $u.otherpager = $_.otherpager
            $u.title = $_.jobtitle
            $u.company = $_.company
            $u.department = $_.department
            $u.proxyaddresses = $_.proxyaddresses

         if ($u.description -contains 'remove')
            {Set-ADUser $_.samaccountname -clear @{description=$u.description}} else {Set-ADUser -identity $_.samaccountname -replace @{description=$u.description}}   
         if ($u.office -contains 'remove')
            {Set-ADUser $_.samaccountname -clear @{office=$u.office}} else {Set-ADUser -identity $_.samaccountname -replace @{office=$u.office}}       
         if ($u.state -contains 'remove')    
 
     }