# Pull SamAccountName from UserDisplayName

**URL:** <https://forums.powershell.org/t/pull-samaccountname-from-userdisplayname/10917>\
**Category:** PowerShell Help\
**Created:** [July 2, 2018, 7:58pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/pull-samaccountname-from-userdisplayname/10917 "2018-07-02T19:58:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![donxavier10](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7c8e57/32.png) [@donxavier10](https://forums.powershell.org/u/donxavier10)\
**Post date:** [July 2, 2018, 7:58pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/pull-samaccountname-from-userdisplayname/10917/1 "2018-07-02T19:58:59Z")

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I am trying to automate our ActiveSync approval process at work. I’ve created a script that queries all devices with the status “DeviceAccessState = False” and pulls the Device ID, UserDisplayName, DeviceType, and Identity into a CSV file. That part works fine.  
The trouble I encounter is when I run my other script that is supposed to pull the SamAccountName for each user by referencing the UserDisplayName that I get from the Get-MobileDevice cmdlet, which is what I use to generate the CSV. Here is my script"

```
**cls Import-Module ActiveDirectory $Users = Import-Csv -path "C:\QuarantineUser.csv" foreach ($User in $Users) { Write-Output $User.UserDisplayName #This is to verify that it is pulling the UserDisplayName data from the 'Quarantine' file# $Name = Get-ADUser -filter {DisplayName -eq "$User.UserDisplayName\*"} -properties \* | Select SamAccountName Write-Output "$Name.samaccountname" }**
```

This is the output of the script: _user names altered to protect the innocent_  
Ellen Ripley  
.samaccountname

Dennis Menace  
.samaccountname

…and so on.

I want to pull the SamAccountName by using the UserDisplayName so that I can query a specific security group to see if the users contained in the Quarantine file are members. If they are members then the next step would be to set the DeviceAccessState for their ActiveSync device to Allowed. The roadblock I am running into is with the $Name variable. Although the UserDisplayName provided by the Get-MobileDevice cmdlet appears to put the UserDisplayName in the same format as the DisplayName found by Get-ADUser, it does not seem to translate to a samaccountname when I attempt to search by the UDN.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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**Author:** ![postanote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ebca7d/32.png) [@postanote](https://forums.powershell.org/u/postanote)\
**Post date:** [July 2, 2018, 10:26pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/pull-samaccountname-from-userdisplayname/10917/2 "2018-07-02T22:26:26Z")

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Get-ADUser, already gives you the SamAccountName and more. Why do you feel you need to kludge it by extrapolating from the DisplayName. You can pull both of those at the same time and if all you want in the SAM, then pull it directly.

```
Get-ADUser -Filter * -Property DisplayName,SamAccountName | Select-Object -First 1

# Results
DisplayName : Administrator
...
SamAccountName : Administrator
...
```

Of course this you just use a comparison to your list, then just use the ADGroup cmdlets to pull the additional info you are after.

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**Author:** ![donxavier10](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7c8e57/32.png) [@donxavier10](https://forums.powershell.org/u/donxavier10)\
**Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 10:41am UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/pull-samaccountname-from-userdisplayname/10917/3 "2018-07-11T10:41:27Z")

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Thanks, postanote. I was just over thinking it. Much appreciated!

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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, 8:34pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/pull-samaccountname-from-userdisplayname/10917/4 "2024-05-16T20:34:51Z")

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