Question

I need help with this code:

#Set the starting directory to C:\Users
Set-Location "C:\Users\"

#Creates and empty array
$userdirs = New-Object System.Collections.ArrayList($null)

#List of all directories in Documents and Settings and this list is then manipulated to output the full directory path
$dirs = Get-ChildItem | Select-Object FullName | Where-Object {!($_.psiscontainer)} | foreach {$_.FullName}

#Adds the results of the Get-ChildItem manipulation to the array $userdirs
$userdirs.AddRange($dirs)

#Testing each member of array
#echo $userdirs
foreach ($dir in $userdirs){
    if ($dir -contains *[Environment]::UserName*){
        echo This path contains username
    }
    Else{
        echo This path does not
    }
}

The aim of the code was to list all the directories in the C:\Users folder and then test for one that contained the current logging on users username. In the future the If Else part will carry out a test-path and then file copy if the directory exists for each occurence of a directory with the username in it. At present, all I get is this:

You must provide a value expression on the right-hand side of the ‘-contains’ operator.
At C:\testpath.ps1:12 char:31
+ if ($dir -contains <<<< [Environment]::UserName){
+ CategoryInfo : ParserError: (:) [], ParentContainsErrorRecordException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : ExpectedValueExpression

I was under the impression that I could use the -contains tool to test for a string with two wildcards so I am wondering where I am going wrong.

Answer 1

Here’s what you may want:

Set-Location "C:\Users\"
$dirs = Get-ChildItem | ? { $_.psiscontainer } | % { $_.FullName }

foreach ($dir in $userdirs)
{
    if ($dir -match $env:USERNAME)
    {
        Write-Host "$dir - This path contains username"
    }
}

Two (of a number) of issues w/ your approach

$dirs = Get-ChildItem | Select-Object FullName `
| Where-Object {!($_.psiscontainer)} | foreach {$_.FullName}

After you do a select-object, you can’t access the original DirectoryInfo object

And -contains is for a list of objects, you probably want -match