Cleanup PowerShell Command

Question

I have been trying to re-format this command by making it cleaner but I just can't seem to get around the write-output.

Get-QARSOperation -ParentContainer 'somedomain.com/OU1/OU2' -TargetObjectType 'user' |
  Where-Object {$_.Status -eq 'Completed' -and $_.Controls.ID -eq 'OperationReason'} |
  ForEach-Object {Get-QARSApprovalTask -Operation $_.ID} |
  ForEach-Object {
    Write-OutPut ("Target: " + $_.Operation.TargetObjectInfo.DN.Replace("CN=","").Replace("cn=","").Replace("\","").Replace(",","").Replace("OU","").Split('=')[0]);
    Write-OutPut ("Operation ID: "+ $_.Operation.ID);
    Write-OutPut ("Approver: " + $_.CompletedBy.DN.Replace("CN=","").Replace("\","").Replace(",","").Replace("OU","").Split('=')[0]);
    Write-OutPut ("StartedOn: " + $_.Created);
    Write-OutPut ("Completed: " + $_.Completed);
    Write-OutPut ("Comments: " + $_.CompletionReason);
    Write-OutPut ("Operation Type: " + $_.Operation.Type);
    Write-OutPut "" 
  }

Also the format when I export to csv doesn't put the data into columns. What suggestions do you have to make this script look neater?

Thank you!

Answer 1

As suggested in the comments the correct thing to do is use Export-Csv to generate a CSV file. As for creating an object that you want to export and making that easy to read in the code you could do something similar to what you have, and use it to create a custom object that could then be piped to Export-Csv. Also, I think your whole .Replace("CN=","").Replace("cn=","").Replace("\","").Replace(",","").Replace("OU","").Split('=')[0] can be simplified to .Split('=,')[1]. The string's .Split() method accepts multiple characters to split on, and it will split on any of the characters provided. Here's what I would suggest, you will need to update the path at the end, and may have to revert to your longer .Replace bit if mine doesn't work for you.

Get-QARSOperation -ParentContainer 'somedomain.com/OU1/OU2' -TargetObjectType 'user' |
    Where-Object {$_.Status -eq 'Completed' -and $_.Controls.ID -eq 'OperationReason'} |
    ForEach-Object {Get-QARSApprovalTask -Operation $_.ID} |
    ForEach-Object {
        [PSCustomObject][Ordered]@{
            "Target" = $_.Operation.TargetObjectInfo.DN.Split('=,')[1]
            "Operation ID" = $_.Operation.ID
            "Approver" = $_.CompletedBy.DN.Split('=,')[1]
            "StartedOn" = $_.Created
            "Completed" = $_.Completed
            "Comments" = $_.CompletionReason
            "Operation Type" = $_.Operation.Type
        }
    } |
    Export-Csv C:\Path\To\File.csv -NoTypeInformation

You could use a Select statement, but I think this looks cleaner for you.