PowerShell split method on string value

Question

I'm trying to grab a value from a string within my PowerShell script.

The string can come like this:

$TargetOU = "OU=Company Users,OU=Company,OU=Organisation Users,DC=domain,DC=local"

or like this:

$TargetOU = "OU=Company,OU=Organisation Users,DC=domain,DC=local"

Using the following will return "Company" in the first example but "Company,OU" in the second. How Can I modify this to provide just "Company" in both instances?

$TargetOU.Split('= ')[1]

J. Bergmann · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-01 11:41:32Z

2

You can achieve this by adding a , to the characters in your split method. This is because you split your string at every char given to the split method. Your first string splits to:

OU
Company
Users,OU
Company,OU
Organisation
Users,DC
domain,DC
local

while your second string splits to:

OU
Company,OU
Organisation
Users,DC
domain,DC
local

When using $TargetOU.Split('= ,') instead your second string will split to:

OU
Company
OU
Organisation
Users
DC
domain
DC
local

where the element with index 1 is only "Company", not "Company,OU"

answered Sep 1, 2017 at 11:41

J. Bergmann

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1 Comment

jshizzle Over a year ago

Spot on thanks. I was reading it as start at "=" and finish at " " rather than splitting at all characters given. So simple and exactly what I was after. Thanks again.

skilleras · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-01 12:08:37Z

2

Try this. Given your examples of input this returns "Company" every time.

What it does: saves your split in a variable and checks if that variable contains a comma, as it would if "OU=Company,OU=Organisation Users,DC=domain,DC=local" was your input. If true, split that again at the comma and save the first part in a variable. I used the same variable name as with the first split, since I assume you want to do the same thing with the result later in your script, regardless of how the input looks.

$SplitTargetOU = $TargetOU.Split('= ')[1]
if ($SplitTargetOU -like '*,*')
{
$SplitTargetOU = $SplitTargetOU.Split(',')[0]
}

EDIT: J. Bergmann's answer was a little simpler. Nice one. :)

edited Sep 1, 2017 at 12:08

answered Sep 1, 2017 at 11:56

skilleras

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Comments

gryphonB · Accepted Answer · 2019-07-21 13:08:46Z

0

This answer doesn't work for me. The split method is not treating the characters as a character array. To fix it, I have to explicitly cast it:

"OU=Company Users,OU=Company,OU=Organisation Users,
 DC=domain,DC=local".Split('= ,')

returns

OU=Company Users,OU=Company,OU=Organisation Users,DC=domain,DC=local

but

"OU=Company Users,OU=Company,OU=Organisation Users, 
 DC=domain,DC=local".Split([char[]]'= ,')

returns

OU
Company
Users
OU
Company
OU
Organisation
Users
DC
domain
DC
local

answered Jul 21, 2019 at 13:08

gryphonB

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