# \-Contains Help

**URL:** <https://forums.powershell.org/t/contains-help/518>\
**Category:** PowerShell Help\
**Created:** [December 31, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/contains-help/518 "2011-12-31T18:30:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![archives](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@archives](https://forums.powershell.org/u/archives)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/contains-help/518/1 "2011-12-31T18:30:00Z")

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by Upinit at 2013-01-22 18:12:31

> I come from the Perl world and am getting started with Powershell. I’m trying to use the -contains function and I can’t seem to get it working. My script is taking an input file in the form of:  
>   
> distinguishedname LastLogonDate   
> ----------------- -------------   
> CN=Vader, Darth (PMD),OU=PMD,OU=WC,OU=Consultants,DC=acme,DC=com   
> CN=Skywalker, Luke (MSC),OU=PMD,OU=WC,OU=Consultants,DC=acme,DC=com   
> CN=Solo, Han (PMD),OU=PMD,OU=WC,OU=Consultants,DC=acme,DC=com 6/16/2011 7:11:09 AM  
> CN=Bauer, Jack (PMD),OU=PMD,OU=WC,OU=Consultants,DC=acme,DC=com 9/18/2012 2:59:09 PM  
>   
> I am parsing through it and splitting each line to grab just the date and time fields which I am then using to get the number of days since they have logged on. I have it working except when I try to add some extra logic into it.  
>   
> My issue is as you can see in the input file not everyone has a date and time field associated with them. I want my script to not to perform the splitting and date comparison function for those users. I am using -contains but it doesn’t appear to work for me as depending whether or not I use -contains or -notcontains its doing an all or nothing function.   
>   
> Here is what I have, note I have some added code for my own debugging purposes. When I run it as is I am getting the flag as "no" for all line entries even though 2 of them have the : in them as they have date and time associated to them. Can someone direct me to what I am doing wrong?  
>   
> $a = get-content c:\scripts\activedirectory\expired\_users.txt  
> $date1 = Get-Date  
> foreach ($line in $a) {  
> $new = $null  
> write-host "====================="  
> write-host "$line"  
> if ($line -contains ":") {  
> $split = $line -split "=com"  
> $new = $split[1].Trim()  
> echo xxx $new xxx  
> $flag = "Yes"  
> $date2 = Get-Date $new  
> $num = ($date1 - $date2).Days  
> echo $num  
> } else {  
> $flag = "No"  
> }  
> echo $flag  
> }

by Klaas at 2013-01-23 04:30:14

> since "$line" is a string, you can use $line -like "_:_" or $line -match ":".  
> ‘-contains’ is used to check for an element in a collection.  
>   
> DonJ wrote this:  
> http://www.windowsitpro.com/blog/powershell-with-a-purpose-blog-36/windows-powershell/powershell-141421

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**Author:** ![dotnVo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@dotnVo](https://forums.powershell.org/u/dotnVo)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2024, 9:03pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/contains-help/518/2 "2024-05-16T21:03:36Z")

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