Question

I am trying to run the following Powershell script.

import-module ActiveDirectory

$computers = Get-ADComputer -filter * -SearchBase "OU=myOU,DC=vw,DC=local" | select-object name

Invoke-Command -ComputerName $computers -ScriptBlock {gpupdate /target:Computer}

The issue is $computers is not a string[] like -ComputerName expects. It really is a Array of ADComputer with one paramter called name.

# Get-ADComputer -filter * -SearchBase "OU=myOU,DC=vw,DC=local" | select-object name | Format-Custom

class ADComputer
{
  name = PC1
}

class ADComputer
{
  name = PC2
}

class ADComputer
{
  name = PC3
}

What is the correct way to get a array of strings for the names? If I was in C# I know it would be

string[] computerNames = computers.Select(computer => computer.name).ToArray();

but I want to learn how to do it in Powershell correctly.

Answer 1

You can use

Select-Object -ExpandProperty Name

or (probably the closest equivalent)

ForEach-Object { $_.Name }

Note that to force the result to be an array (e.g. if you want access to its Count property), you should surround the expression with @(). Otherwise the result might be an array or a single object.