Just trying something

PowerShell Help
1

Hi,

I’m looking to split an AD path into it’s component parts, remove the domain and machine name and re-order the OU into a left to right format. For example, if I have the AD path ‘CN=SPARE-LAPTOP,OU=Laptops,OU=Workstations,DC=domain,DC=local’ I want the output to be ‘Workstations>Laptops’.

I am currently working on spitting the string into it’s component parts and putting it into an array and have:

$OU = @{ (("CN=SPARE-LAPTOP,OU=Laptops,OU=Workstations,DC=domain,DC=local").TrimEnd(",DC=domain,DC=local") -split ",").substring(3) }

When I run this I get:
[blockquote]At line:1 char:138

  • … ").substring(3) }
  •                ~

Missing ‘=’ operator after key in hash literal.
At line:1 char:138

  • … ").substring(3) }
  •                ~

The hash literal was incomplete.
+ CategoryInfo : ParserError: (:slight_smile: , ParentContainsErrorRecordException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : MissingEqualsInHashLiteral[/blockquote]
Any advice on what I’m doing wrong?

2

As you’re initiating a hashtable you have to give the value a name, for example:

$OU = @{ 
    VariableName = (("CN=SPARE-LAPTOP,OU=Laptops,OU=Workstations,DC=domain,DC=local").TrimEnd(",DC=domain,DC=local") -split ",").substring(3) 
}

PS C:\Users\mni> $OU

Name                           Value
VariableName                   {SPARE-LAPTOP, Laptops, Workstations}                                                                                                                                                                                             


PS C:\Users\mni> $OU.VariableName
SPARE-LAPTOP
Laptops
Workstations
3

Thanks Martin

4

Let’s take it step by step :

 $OU = (("CN=SPARE-LAPTOP,OU=Laptops,OU=Workstations,DC=domain,DC=local").TrimEnd(",DC=domain,DC=local") -split ",")

This gives the following array of strings :
[blockquote] CN=SPARE-LAPTOP
OU=Laptops
OU=Workstations [/blockquote]

Now, let’s filter the items starting with “OU=” and get rid of the “OU=” in these items :

 $OUMatches = $ou | Select-String -Pattern "^OU=" | ForEach-Object { $_ -replace "OU=", "" }

Then, reverse the order in the array :

$Reversed = $OUMatches[-1], $OUMatches[0]

This gives us the following value for $Reversed :
[blockquote] Workstations
Laptops [/blockquote]

Now, we just need to transform our array back to a string :

 $Reversed -join '>'

This ouputs the following :
[blockquote] Workstations>Laptops [/blockquote]