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

I have to comment on this because it really aggravated me to sort this out.

Joseph Alcorn has the right idea. The filter parameter takes a string and then evaluates that in order to process the filter. What trips people up with this is that you are given the option to use curly brackets instead {}, and this doesn't work as you'd expect if you were using Where... it still has to be treated like a string.

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

I recommend sticking to quotes to make it more clear/readable for yourself and others and to avoid potential syntax errors, or stick to Where{} in the pipeline. When doing so, I find it best to use double-quotes on the outside & single-quotes on the inside so you still get intellisense detection on the variable.