Powershell Management.Automation ParameterBindingException

Question

I am trying to run this command in code and using the AddArgument command for the Select PrimarySMTPAddress but in code I am getting a error message.

ERROR

System.Management.Automation.ParameterBindingException: 'A positional parameter cannot be found that accepts argument 'Select PrimarySMTPAddress'.'

PowerShell working

Get-DistributionGroupMember -Identity emailaddress -ResultSize Unlimited | Select PrimarySMTPAddress

c# Code

powerShell.AddCommand("get-distributiongroupmember");
powerShell.AddParameter("Identity", distributionGroup.Name);
powerShell.AddArgument("Select PrimarySMTPAddress");

Answer 1

Basically you're missing .AddCommand("Select-Object") (Note: Select is an alias of Select-Object) then you can chain it into .AddArgument("PrimarySMTPAddress") and it should work properly. I don't have access to Get-DistributionGroupMember but using a built-in cmdlet and a similar statement as you have:

Get-ChildItem -Filter *.ps1 -File -Recurse |
    Select-Object FullName

Would look like this:

public static Collection<PSObject> Invoke()
{
    using PowerShell ps = PowerShell.Create()
        .AddCommand("Get-ChildItem")
        .AddParameters(new Dictionary<string, object>()
        {
            { "Filter", "*.ps1" },
            { "File", true },
            { "Recurse", true }
        })
        .AddCommand("Select-Object")
        .AddArgument("FullName");

    return ps.Invoke();
}

You might find it easier to bind arguments using .AddParameters as demonstrated above.

---

Possibly the statement for your use case would look like this:

public static Collection<PSObject> Invoke()
{
    using PowerShell ps = PowerShell.Create()
        .AddCommand("Get-DistributionGroupMember")
        .AddParameters(new Dictionary<string, object>()
        {
            { "Identity", "emailAddress" },
            { "ResultSize", "Unlimited" }
        })
        .AddCommand("Select-Object")
        .AddArgument("PrimarySMTPAddress");

    return ps.Invoke();
}

If you want to select more than one property you can do:

        .AddCommand("Select-Object")
        .AddArgument(new string[] { "PrimarySMTPAddress", "OtherProp", .. });