Spliting a string....Newbie

PowerShell Help
1

Sorry but I am just getting into Powershell so my knowledge is limited.
I have the following script:
Add-PSSnapin Quest.ActiveRoles.ADManagement
$PCS = Get-QADComputer -ManagedBy (Get-QADUser swindmiller) | Select-Object Description

Which gives me an output for $PCS of:
Model / Serial / Building
Model / Serial / Building
Model / Serial / Building

I want to reference each Model, Serial, Building, with something like $PCS[0],$PCS[1],$PCS[2]. I assume I would have to use some sort of foreach command for each line but I am getting tripped up on the split command.

I keep getting:
Method invocation failed because [Selected.Quest.ActiveRoles.ArsPowerShellSnapIn.Data.ArsComputerObject] does not contain a method named ‘Split’.

Can someone give me a hand and possibly an example?

Thanks,
Scott

2
  • Are there literal spaces on either side of the slashes?
  • It would be better if you could post real world data (sanitized as necessary) rather than the made up data above.
  • Also itls not clear from above what "$PCS[0],$PCS[1],$PCS[2]:" means.
  • And is there a reason why you are using the Quest cmdlets instead of the native AD cmdlets?
    • 3

    Scott, I do not have access to the Quest CMDLETs, but I have an idea for you. Pipe your output to Get-Member. If the TYPENAME is System.String, the you can try to split your output using “`n” That is a back tick in front of the n, not a single quote.
    First save all of the output into a single variable. Let’s call this variable $Data.
    Next, Split the data: $Split = $Data.Split(“`n”)
    Not access the data. $Split[0]

    4

    I see that the native cmdlets don’t easily offer up -ManagedBy. You could do something like this …

    Add-PSSnapin -Name Quest.ActiveRoles.ADManagement
$mgrName = "swindmiller"
$mgrDN = (Get-QADUser ).DN
$computers = Get-QADComputer -ManagedBy $mgrDN
$results = foreach ($computer in $computers)
{
    $model, $serial, $building = $computer.Description -split "\s*/\s*"
    [PSCustomObject]@{
        Computer = $computer.ComputerName.trimend('$')
        Manager = $mgrName
        Model = $model
        Serial = $serial
        Building = $building
    }
}
# Sample outputs - pick one or more, your choice
$results
$results | Format-Table -AutoSize
$results | Out-GridView
$results | Export-Csv -Path .\foo.csv -NoTypeInformation -Encoding ASCII
$results | Out-File -FilePath .\foo.txt -Encoding ASCII
$results | Export-Clixml -Path .\foo.xml -Encoding ASCII
    5

    Thanks so much Bob McCoy! I am learning but was totally thinking about it the wrong way. Thanks!
    I was then able to use $results | Select-Object Computer,Model at the end.
    This worked perfectly.

    The only change I had to make was to the 3rd line:
    $mgrDN = (Get-QADUser ).DN

    to

    $mgrDN = (Get-QADUser $mgrName).DN

    Scott

    6

    Yeah, sorry. That was an edit error when I was removing real world data from the posted script.

    As with just about anything in PowerShell you will find there are multiple ways to get it done. I prefer a collection of objects. That gives me maximum flexibility in my output options at the end.