# How to use Try and Catch to export success and failure to a CSV output

**URL:** <https://forums.powershell.org/t/how-to-use-try-and-catch-to-export-success-and-failure-to-a-csv-output/21230>\
**Category:** PowerShell Help\
**Created:** [December 25, 2022, 8:47pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/how-to-use-try-and-catch-to-export-success-and-failure-to-a-csv-output/21230 "2022-12-25T20:47:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Saeed\_Ahmad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Saeed\_Ahmad](https://forums.powershell.org/u/Saeed_Ahmad)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2022, 8:47pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/how-to-use-try-and-catch-to-export-success-and-failure-to-a-csv-output/21230/1 "2022-12-25T20:47:26Z")

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HI there, This script takes user list input from csv file, collects user attributes in hashtable and pass in as argument in a foreach loop to create user objects. The output can be success where user is created, or failure where user is not created due to various error conditions. I am trying to add Try and Catch to export , success or failure to csv with simple success and faiure along wtih user ID  
At this stage I cantch all failures, I also need success. May I get some help to how to improve try and catch to capture both success and failure?  
Many thanks  
Sa

```auto
#Connect-AzureAD -TenantId xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
#Testing Try and catch, takes user list from csv file and create AzureAD B2C consumer accounts.
Start-Transcript C:\data\Transcript1.txt -Append
$LogFile = "C:\data\Log.csv"
$users = @()
$Users = Import-Csv "C:\data\User-List.csv"
foreach ($User in $Users){
Try
{
# Instantiate a hashtable containing required transformed user details used to create their account.
        $Properties = @{
        AccountEnabled = $true
        UserPrincipalName = $($User.email).Replace("@","_")+"MyB2C-Tenant.onmicrosoft.com"
        DisplayName = $user.DisplayName
        GivenName = $user.GivenName 
        Surname = $User.Surname 
        CreationType = 'LocalAccount' 
        TelephoneNumber = $User.TelephoneNumber
       # Mobile = $User.Mobile #remove this
        # Define user password profile; (Password, ForceChangePasswordNextLogin)
        PasswordProfile = [Microsoft.Open.AzureAD.Model.PasswordProfile]::New($user.Password,$True)
        # Define user SignInName; (Type, Value)
        SignInNames = [Microsoft.Open.AzureAD.Model.SignInName]::New('emailAddress',$User.email)
    }
# If user's 'TelephoneNumber' is blank, remove from properties hashtable.
    if ($User.TelephoneNumber -eq ""){
        $Properties.Remove('TelephoneNumber')
    }
<# #Remove the comments from this block if you want the same logic to apply to blank mobile numbers.
    if ($User.Mobile -eq ""){
        $Properties.Remove('Mobile')
    } 
#>
       
# Create the new AzureAD user with the values from the $Properties hashtable.
    New-AzureADUser @Properties
 }
 #Catches only Failures to a csv file
 Catch
 {
   write-host "Failed! Error:$_"
        $user.UserPrincipalName
        ""| select @{name = "UserPrincipalName";exp = {$($user.UserPrinciPalName)}},@{name = "Result";exp = {"Failed"}} | Export-Csv $LogFile -Append -Encoding UTF8 -NoTypeInformation 
    }
    }
    Stop-Transcripttype or paste code here

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Olaf](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.powershell.org/olaf/32/992_2.png) [@Olaf](https://forums.powershell.org/u/Olaf)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2022, 9:36pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/how-to-use-try-and-catch-to-export-success-and-failure-to-a-csv-output/21230/2 "2022-12-25T21:36:18Z")

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Before we proceed … please take a look at your own post. Does it look ok to you?

Please edit your question and fix the formating of your code.

Thanks in advance.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Saeed\_Ahmad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Saeed\_Ahmad](https://forums.powershell.org/u/Saeed_Ahmad)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2022, 11:41pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/how-to-use-try-and-catch-to-export-success-and-failure-to-a-csv-output/21230/3 "2022-12-25T23:41:51Z")

</div>

Hi, Olaf. Thank you for pointing out. Yes, my question was not well presented. I have rephrased the question title and amended the description, I should have said hash table not array. Also formatted the code.  
regards  
Sa

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![krzydoug](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.powershell.org/krzydoug/32/1008_2.png) [@krzydoug](https://forums.powershell.org/u/krzydoug)\
**Post date:** [December 26, 2022, 10:15am UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/how-to-use-try-and-catch-to-export-success-and-failure-to-a-csv-output/21230/4 "2022-12-26T10:15:38Z")

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Instead of exporting in the catch, simply track if it was successful or failed via the try/catch and output at the end. Also, the command needs to hit a terminating error in order for try/catch to work as expected. It sounds like it does already but to ensure it and all others generate terminating errors you can pass `-ErrorAction Stop` to the cmdlets individually or you can set `$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'` like I did in this example. I’ve made various other adjustments to your code, including the reverse logic on hash building. Only add if the property has a value vs adding and removing if it’s empty. The formatting of the code is awful and I really hope it was just due to copy paste, which you should definitely practice at. You left the “type or paste code here” text in the codeblock. 🙂

```auto
Start-Transcript C:\data\Transcript1.txt -Append
$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'

$LogFile = "C:\data\Log.csv"

$Userlist = Import-Csv "C:\data\User-List.csv"

foreach ($User in $Userlist){

    Write-Host "Processing user '$($user.userprincipalname)'" -ForegroundColor Cyan

    # Instantiate a hashtable containing required transformed user details used to create their account.
    $Properties = @{
        AccountEnabled = $true
        UserPrincipalName = $($User.email).Replace("@","_")+"MyB2C-Tenant.onmicrosoft.com"
        DisplayName = $user.DisplayName
        GivenName = $user.GivenName 
        Surname = $User.Surname 
        CreationType = 'LocalAccount' 
        TelephoneNumber = $User.TelephoneNumber
        PasswordProfile = [Microsoft.Open.AzureAD.Model.PasswordProfile]::New($user.Password,$True)
        SignInNames = [Microsoft.Open.AzureAD.Model.SignInName]::New('emailAddress',$User.email)
    }

    # If the current user has TelephoneNumber or Mobile set, add it to the property hashtable
    'TelephoneNumber', 'Mobile' | ForEach-Object {
        if ($User.$_ -ne ""){
            $Properties.Add($_)
        }
    }

    # Create the new AzureAD user with the values from the $Properties hashtable. Catch the success/fail output into variables
    $result,$color = try{
        $newuser = New-AzureADUser @Properties
        "Successful"
        "Green"
    }
    Catch{
        "Failed"
        "Yellow"
    }

    $user | Select-Object UserPrincipalName, @{name = "Result";exp = {$result}}

    Write-Host "Finished processing user '$($user.userprincipalname)' - Result: " -ForegroundColor Cyan -NoNewline
    Write-Host "$result" -ForegroundColor $color
}

Stop-Transcript

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Saeed\_Ahmad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Saeed\_Ahmad](https://forums.powershell.org/u/Saeed_Ahmad)\
**Post date:** [December 27, 2022, 7:46am UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/how-to-use-try-and-catch-to-export-success-and-failure-to-a-csv-output/21230/5 "2022-12-27T07:46:26Z")

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HI krzydoug, Just there are born singers, there are born coders (🙂 I am the one who struggle a lot with codes. But I will try to learn to format script better.  
I am having error on this part.

```auto
 # If the current user has TelephoneNumber or Mobile set, add it to the property hashtable

  
  'TelephoneNumber','Mobile' | ForEach-Object {
  
      if ($User.$_ -ne ""){
  
         $Properties.Add($_)
            
        }

    }
The error is as below
ForEach-Object : Cannot find an overload for "Add" and the argument count: "1".
At line:46 char:33
+ 'TelephoneNumber', 'Mobile' | ForEach-Object {
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [ForEach-Object], MethodException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : MethodCountCouldNotFindBest,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.ForEachObjectCommand

```

When I comment out this check, the script works fine. Lastly I ammended a line below to export failure and success to csv file whic was my core requiremen. So your Try and Catch working perfectly.  
$user | Select-Object UserPrincipalName, @{name = “Result”;exp = {$result}} |Export-Csv C:\data\result.csv -Append -NoTypeInformation

My appology If I have messed up formating again. I am new to forum.  
regards  
Sa

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Olaf](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.powershell.org/olaf/32/992_2.png) [@Olaf](https://forums.powershell.org/u/Olaf)\
**Post date:** [December 27, 2022, 8:28am UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/how-to-use-try-and-catch-to-export-success-and-failure-to-a-csv-output/21230/6 "2022-12-27T08:28:18Z")

</div>

> [@Saeed\_Ahmad](#):
>
> But I will try to learn to format script better.

This may help you …

> **[GitHub - PoshCode/PowerShellPracticeAndStyle: The Unofficial PowerShell Best...](https://github.com/PoshCode/PowerShellPracticeAndStyle)**
>
> The Unofficial PowerShell Best Practices and Style Guide - GitHub - PoshCode/PowerShellPracticeAndStyle: The Unofficial PowerShell Best Practices and Style Guide

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![krzydoug](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.powershell.org/krzydoug/32/1008_2.png) [@krzydoug](https://forums.powershell.org/u/krzydoug)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2023, 5:56am UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/how-to-use-try-and-catch-to-export-success-and-failure-to-a-csv-output/21230/7 "2023-01-01T05:56:51Z")

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I apologize, I totally screwed up the add. I blame lack of sleep. Here is a corrected version of this section.

```auto
    # If the current user has TelephoneNumber or Mobile set, add it to the property hashtable
    'TelephoneNumber', 'Mobile' | ForEach-Object {
        if ($User.$_ -ne ""){
            $Properties.Add($_, $User.$_)
        }
    }

```

Or you can also populate it directly without using add.

```auto
    # If the current user has TelephoneNumber or Mobile set, add it to the property hashtable
    'TelephoneNumber', 'Mobile' | ForEach-Object {
        if ($User.$_ -ne ""){
            $Properties[$_] = $User.$_
        }
    }

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Saeed\_Ahmad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Saeed\_Ahmad](https://forums.powershell.org/u/Saeed_Ahmad)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2023, 10:24am UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/how-to-use-try-and-catch-to-export-success-and-failure-to-a-csv-output/21230/8 "2023-01-01T10:24:10Z")

</div>

Hi @krzydoug … Great that worked like a charm. Many thanks for providing final piece of the puzzle and really appreciate your help.  
Happy New year  
Sa

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<div class="post-metadata">

**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, 8:16pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/how-to-use-try-and-catch-to-export-success-and-failure-to-a-csv-output/21230/9 "2024-05-16T20:16:11Z")

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