Unable to create a array from inside a if statement and export to csv

PowerShell Help
1

I am having a little difficulity trying to do something.

  1. I am running a command that checks the DNS Conditional Forwarders, ANDexports the results to a CSV.
  2. create a variable and import the contents of the csv
  3. have a if statement that if the variable is $null to create/add data to the csv file so it is not null.

Here is what I came up with:

            gwmi -Namespace root\MicrosoftDNS -Class MicrosoftDNS_Zone -Filter "ZoneType = 4" |
					            foreach {
					              foreach ($server in $_.masterservers) {
						            new-object -type psobject -prop @{Name=$_.Name;MasterServer=$server}
					              }
					            }  | Export-Csv "C:\temp\DNSZones.csv"

            Start-Sleep -s 10
								
			$DNSZonesCSVContent = import-csv "c:\temp\DNSZones.csv"
			
			If ($DNSZonesCSVContent -like "$null") {
                                                    
                                                    $CSVContent = @() 

													$row = New-Object System.Object
													$row | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "Name" -Value "NA"
													$row | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "MasterServer" -Value "NA" 

													$CSVContent += $row
                                                    
                                                    $CSVContent | Export-CSV -Path "C:\temp\DNSZones.csv"
                                                    
                                                }

I can see that a empty csv is being created by the original command, and when I import it into the variable it doesn’t show anything (as expected). I also know that if I run the portion of the script that creates the array and exports it into the existing CSV it works fine when run all by itself (not in the if statement). I have tried using -eq, -like, -notlike, etc… against $null or * and still nothing happens.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks,

Ed

2

Try it without the quote marks around $null.

What I think is happening is the “$null” actually represents an empty string and an empty string is not the same as a null object.

$string = "$null"
Write-Output ($string -eq $null)
3

Just curious … what do you see when you enter

import-csv "c:\temp\DNSZones.csv"

Because I’m not sure what you’re expecting since a blank line will not import. And a line with just a delimiter will show a blank line for the object, but it is not null. It is a collection of empty strings. And -Like is always the wrong operator use with $null.

If ($DNSZonesCSVContent.Name -eq "" -and $DNSZonesCSVContent.Server -eq "") 
{
    $row = [PSCustomObject]@{Name = "NA"; MasterServer = "NA"}
}

Although this doesn’t really seem like useful information to me. You’re going to end up with a bunch of NA’s at the bottom of the list.