Get-ADUser syntax error when searching against GivenName and Surname

Question

I have the function below but I get a syntax error on line 12 when running it.

If I isolate the Get-ADuser command in Powershell ISE and pass it a name, using the same split code etc, it returns the expected user object. I am aware however that running code on my local machine may be a bit different to my script, as it establishes a remote pssession to get Exchange commandlets for another part of the script.

I have also tried a couple of variations:

$firstlast = get-aduser -server $adDomainControllerHostName -filter {sn -like $names[1] -and givenname -like $names[0]}
$firstlast = get-aduser -server $adDomainControllerHostName -filter {GivenName -like $fn -and Surname -like $sn}

The function is called like this:

$ADProps.manager = getManagerSAMAccountName -manager $ADProps.manager -adDomainControllerHostName $DC;

$ADProps is an array of active directory parameters like givenName, sn, samAccountName, title, department, manager, etc.

Function:

function getManagerSAMAccountName($manager, $adDomainControllerHostName){
    if ($manager.trimEnd() -eq "") {
        Write-Host ("*** WARNING *** : Manager name not provided.")
        return ""
    }
    if ((test-user -samaccountname $manager -addomaincontrollerhostname $adDomainControllerHostName)) {
        return $manager
    } else {
        $names = $manager.split("\s+")
        $fn = $names[0]
        $sn = $names[1]
        if ($names -is [system.array]) {
            $firstlast = get-aduser -server $adDomainControllerHostName -filter {(surname -eq $sn) -and (givenname -eq $fn)}

            if ($firstlast -ne $null -and !($firstlast -is [array]) ) {
                return $firstlast.samAccountName
            }

            $lastfirst = get-aduser -filter {(surname -eq $fn) -and (givenname -eq $sn)}
            if ($lastfirst -ne $null -and !($lastfirst -is [array]) ) {
                return $lastfirst.samAccountName
            }
        }
        OutputLog("*** Warning: Manager name " + $manager + " appears to be ambiguous or invalid. Please provide a user id instead, such as ... Will try using the template's manager instead.")
        return ""
    }       
}

Line which errors:

$firstlast = get-aduser -server $adDomainControllerHostName -filter {(surname -eq $sn) -and (givenname -eq $fn)}

Get-ADUser : Error parsing query: '(GivenName like $fn) -and (Surname like $sn)'. Error message: 'syntax error' at position '12'.

Answer 1

I have figured this out by using:

$firstlast = get-aduser -server $adDomainControllerHostName -filter "(surname -eq '$($sn)') -and (givenname -eq '$($fn)')"

Slight syntax changes like removing the {} around it, replacing with quotes and using $() to surround the variables