Get Samaccountname from display name into .csv

Question

I have a .csv file with displayName and then the display names of the users.

I am running the following code, but the returned .csv file is blank 0KB. I've spent hours on this and I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.

(I've even tried switching the displayName to "DisplayName" but that doesn't work)

Get-Content C:\Scripts\displaynames.txt | ForEach {
   Get-ADUser -Filter "DisplayName -eq '$user'" -Properties Name, SamAccountName, City, co, DistinguishedName | 
Select Name,SamAccountName, City, co, DistinguishedName
} | Export-CSV -path C:\output\paininthebut.csv -NoTypeInformation

I just need a simple return of the displayName = samaccountname

Answer 1

If your file is in fact a Csv file with a header for each column,
and displayname is one of them - then use Import-Csv to get the data.

ForEach-Object uses the variable $_ or alternatively $PSItem to assign the currently iterated row of data with the columns as properties.

So change to:

Import-Csv C:\Scripts\displaynames.txt | ForEach {
   Get-ADUser -Filter "DisplayName -eq '$($_.DisplayName)'" -Properties Name, SamAccountName, City, co, DistinguishedName | 
Select Name,SamAccountName, City, co, DistinguishedName
} | Export-CSV -path C:\output\paininthebut.csv -NoTypeInformation

Read this helpful answer on the issue of Get-AdUserand -filter from mklement0