Get-Aduser -Filter will not accept a variable

Question

I\'d like to check if a user account already exists in the system.

$SamAc = Read-Host \'What is your username?\'
$User = Get-ADUser -Filter {sAMAccountName -         


        

Answer 1

This one bit me when I first started to work with the ActiveDirectory module, and it was a pain to figure out.

The -Filter parameter for the ActiveDirectory module cmdlets is actually looking for a string. When you do {sAMAccountName -eq "$SamAc"} as the value, it is actually looking for "sAMAccountName -eq ""`$SamAc"""

Basically, Powershell parses the parameter and turns its value into a string, and will not interpolate the variable. Try building the string before hand, and it should work.

Something like this:

$SamAc = Read-Host 'What is your username?'    
$filter = "sAmAccountname -eq ""$SamAc"""
$User = Get-ADUser -Filter $filter