Variable is not changing value according to my list

Question

I'm writing a script in PowerShell to automate creation of AD users. One of the conditions I use is to check if the user already exists, then to Write-Host "User exists" and move to the next element in the array. However, when I run the script, it gives me an odd behavior. I'll put the code then explain what happens when I put in breakpoints.

$MACList = Get-Content $Path\MACs.txt
foreach ($MAC in $MACList){
   $MABName = Get-ADUser $MAC
   if ($MABName -ne $null) {
      Write-Host "MAB already exists, moving to next"
   } else {
      # create the new user
   }

When I run the script with breakpoints I can see that $MACList contains the MACs in the file. When I move to the next step, I can see that $MAC contains each element as I traverse the $MACList array. When it gets to the $MABName line, $MAC indeed contains a MAC address, so it should go find if I have that user and set $MABName to that user. It seems to keep the same value if the Get-User cmdlet doesn't return an object. Any ideas on why this might happen?

Ansgar Wiechers · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-03 11:48:43Z

1

Get-ADUser throws an error for non-existing users, so the variable retains its previous value. Use the -Filter parameter to avoid this issue:

$MABName = Get-ADUser -Filter "SamAccountName -eq '$MAC'"

answered May 3, 2016 at 11:48

Ansgar Wiechers

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