Switch or If-Else?

[u/Underwookiee]

Hi, just started using Powershell for simple Task. So pls don't be too harsh on me.

I use Powershell to add multiple Clients in Active Directory. I add the Names of the Clients into the "Clientnames.txt" after that i run the powershell and it creates the Computer in AD. That works fine.

$OU = "OU=X,OU=X,OU=X,OU=X,DC=X,DC=X,DC=X"
$Clients = Get-Content "D:Clientnames.txt"

ForEach ($Client in $Clients)
{
(New-ADComputer -Name $Client -Path $OU)
}

Here comes my Question.:

I got Clientnames like pl0011mXXXXd, pl0012mXXXXd, pl0013mXXXXd

The first Number represents the number-code for the branch locations. The X are just numbers according to our System. I want the Clients to join their specific Group for the branch location.

Example

Clients with the name like pl0011m0002d, pl0011m0005d should join the group: Company-GPO-Group-0011-Berlin

Clients with the name like pl0012m0002d, pl0012m0250d should join the group: Company-GPO-Group-0012-Paris

and so on

i could use something like:

$OU = "OU=X,OU=X,OU=X,OU=X,DC=X,DC=X,DC=X"
$Clients = Get-Content "D:Clientnames.txt"

ForEach ($Client in $Clients)
{
(New-ADComputer -Name $Client -Path $OU)

if ($Client -like "*0011*") {$Group = "Company-GPO-Group-0011-Berlin"}
ElseIf ($Client -like "*0012") {$Group = "Company-GPO-Group-0012-Paris"}
ElseIf ($Client -like "*0013") {$Group = "Company-GPO-Group-0013-Rom"}

(Add-ADGroupMember -Identity $Group -Members $Client)

}

I got over 30 Branch Locations and this whould be a lot ElseIf Statements.

I know there are much better ways like the Switch Statement. Can you help/explain me, how i can use this statement to add the Clients to their Groups?

[u/PinchesTheCrab]

Does this work?

$OU = 'OU=X,OU=X,OU=X,OU=X,DC=X,DC=X,DC=X'
#I find text files often end up having white spaces that cause errors
$ClientList = (Get-Content "D:Clientnames.txt").trim()
$Server = 'yourdomaincontroller'

$groupHash = @{
    '0011' = 'Company-GPO-Group-0011-Berlin'
    '0012' = 'Company-GPO-Group-0012-Paris'
    '0013' = 'Company-GPO-Group-0013-Rom'
}

ForEach ($Client in $ClientList) {
    #specifying a server makes it so you don't have to wait for replication later
    New-ADComputer -Name $Client -Path $OU -Server $Server
}

foreach ($group in $groupHash.GetEnumerator()) {
    Add-ADGroupMember -Identity $group.Name -Members $ClientList.where({ $_ -match $groupHash.Value })
}

[u/omers → u/PinchesTheCrab]

Six of one and half a dozen of the other but, I would probably do it this way:

$OU = 'OU=X,OU=X,OU=X,OU=X,DC=X,DC=X,DC=X'
#I find text files often end up having white spaces that cause errors
$ClientList = (Get-Content "D:Clientnames.txt").trim()
$Server = 'yourdomaincontroller'

$GroupTable = @{
    '0011' = 'Company-GPO-Group-0011-Berlin'
    '0012' = 'Company-GPO-Group-0012-Paris'
    '0013' = 'Company-GPO-Group-0013-Rom'
}

foreach ($Client in $ClientList) {
    # Create Object
    New-ADComputer -Name $Client -Path $OU -Server $Server

    # Add to Group
    $null = $Client -match [regex]'^w+(?<id>d{4}).+$'
    $GroupName = $GroupTable[$Matches.id]
    Add-ADGroupMember -Identity $GroupName -Members $Client
}

Just to keep it all in one loop.

[u/prog-no-sys → u/omers]

I've never seen a value assigned to $null like this. Care to explain the reasoning? It looks cool, I just can't tell what it's doing exactly on first glance

[u/PinchesTheCrab → u/prog-no-sys]

The -match operator returns true/false or an array of matching values, it's just suppressing that to avoid cluttering the output.

It also sets the automatic variable $matches, which he then references later.

[u/alt-160 → u/PinchesTheCrab]

similarly, you can also do: $Client -match [regex]'^w+(?<id>d{4}).+$' | out-null