I often had to get a User object from AD, and reuse it again and again and again. To complicate matters, some names are very commonly used among Indonesians. So, I whup up this PowerShell Function to: (1) Pull a User object from AD and put it in a $global: object, so I can use it everywhere, and (2) If there are more than one match, list all the…

GetU.ps1

Function GetU() {
    param(
        $usr,
        $Order,
        [switch]$Silent
        )

    $EssentialAttributes = @(
        "EmployeeID"
        "Email"
        "MobilePhone"
        "Manager"
        )

    # Specifying "-Order" overrides everything else
    If ($Order -ne $null) {
        $usr = $u[$Order]
        }
    Else {
        # First, check if we actually specify *something* as parameter
        If ($usr -eq $null) {
            # Nothing specified; try recovering the last selected user
            If ($u) { $usr = $u }
            Else { Write-Error "`$u not yet defined!"; return }
            }
        Else {
            # Something is specified. Let's check if it's a number
            $Ord = 0
            If ([System.Int32]::TryParse($usr,[ref]$Ord)) {
                $usr = $u[$Ord]
                }
            # At this point, if $usr was a number, it has been converted into a member
            # of the previously found array.
            # If $usr is *not* a number, it's passed to the next line unscathed
            }
        }

    # Why do we re-get the $usr if it comes from a previous $u?
    # Good reason: Just in case there has been a change.
    # Actual reason: I'm too lazy to put in additional checks. Besides, won't hurt to re-get the $usr
    $global:u = Get-QADUser $usr -IncludeAllProperties

    If (!$u) {
        "$usr not found."
        return
        }

    If ($u.Count -gt 1) {
        "`r`n========== Multiple users found! ==========`r`n"
        # Now we create a nice table containing the Ord(inal) of the found users
        # to assist in selecting one from the list.
        # (Previously, it was just a dump of the array, and I have to manually count for the order)
        # (Not fun)
        $c = 0
        $arr = @()
        foreach ($i in $u) {
            $props = @{
                Ord = $c++
                Name = $i.Name
                Username = $i.LogonName
                CanonicalName = $i.CanonicalName
                }
            $arr += New-Object PSObject -Property $props
            }
        $arr | ft -autos
        return
        }

    If ($u.Count -eq 1) {
        If (!$Silent) {
            $u | Select Name,LogonName,CanonicalName | ft -autos
            foreach ($attr in $EssentialAttributes) { " {0} = {1}" -f $attr,$u.$attr }
            Get-QADMemberOf $u | Select Name,CanonicalName | ft -autos
            }
        }

    }