# Where {var}

**URL:** <https://forums.powershell.org/t/where-var/773>\
**Category:** PowerShell Help\
**Created:** [December 31, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/where-var/773 "2011-12-31T18:30:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![archives](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@archives](https://forums.powershell.org/u/archives)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/where-var/773/1 "2011-12-31T18:30:00Z")

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by grauballe at 2013-03-25 00:06:52

> Hi  
> I try to build a LDAP query:  
> OU1  
> OU2  
> OU3  
> OU4  
> OU5  
> Find all users in OU1 and below, but exclude OU3 and OU5   
> What I tried to do was building a LDAP query in a variable, since I have many OU structures to search and do   
> excludes, so I have made a search config file:  
>   
> DN,Exclusions  
> OU1,"OU3;OU5"  
>   
> I then read the file and build a variable with following information:  
> $Search = "{ $_.ParentContainerDN -notlike '\*OU=OU3,OU=OU1,DC=xx,DC=xx" -and $_.ParentContainerDN -notlike '\*OU=OU3,OU=OU1,DC=xx,DC=xx"}  
>   
> Then I do my search  
> get-qaduser -SearchRoot " OU=OU1,DC=xx,DC=xx" | where {$Seach}  
>   
> But this doesnt seem to work.  
> If I type query "static" into a PS file, it works fine, so the query and the syntax is right.  
> Question… Is this possible at all using $Search as input to where?  
> Is there another way to exclude OU’s in a search (I have to exclude 10 OU’s in one of the searches, and config file is almost 70 lines)  
>   
> thanks  
>   
> Grauballe

by grauballe at 2013-03-25 00:45:27

> OU structure lost some info when posted:  
>   
> OU1 (parent OU, remaining OU’s are child OU’s)  
> – OU2  
> – OU3  
> – OU4  
> – OU5

by notarat at 2013-03-25 04:41:37

> From the face of it, it sounds doable if you:  
>   
> 1 - Separate the static(non-changing) part of the OU from the part that will change and assign the static part to a variable  
> 2 - Read in and Loop through a list of those OUs you want to search (the changing part of the OU), join it to the static part, then search

by MasterOfTheHat at 2013-03-25 10:39:34

> Not sure about how it works with Get-QADUser, but with Get-ADUser, you can do something like this:  
> `Get-ADUser -SearchBase "OU=OU1,DC=domain,DC=com" -Filter * | Where-Object { ($.Distinguishedname -notlike "OU=OU3") -and ($.DistinguishedName -notlike "OU=OU5") }`  
> In that command, the Get-ADUser part of the pipeline gets all users in OU1 and it’s child OUs and then the Where-Object part of the pipeline removes those users in OU3 and OU5.  
>   
> The other option would be to do something like I did in this post where you get a list of the OUs that you want to pull users from and then pull the users from each one using ForEach-Object.

by ArtB0514 at 2013-03-25 11:05:17

> Your issue is with the Where-Object Search string:  
> `$Search = { $.ParentContainerDN -notlike '*OU=OU3,OU=OU1,DC=xx,DC=xx" -and $.ParentContainerDN -notlike '*OU=OU5,OU=OU1,DC=xx,DC=xx"}`  
> Because you are using -and, you are testing that the ParentContainerDN not match BOTH paths. Use -or instead and it should work.  
>   
> Also, you could make your search string a bit shorter by using a regex. The "|" character means OR in a regex:  
> `$Search = {$_.ParentContainerDN -notmatch "OU3|OU5"}`

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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, 8:58pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/where-var/773/2 "2024-05-16T20:58:33Z")

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