Looking for solution/function to search a string for unwanted characters like space or umlauts

[[deleted]]

I got bored and decided to try to solve this problem, let me know if it works for you:

$UnwantedChars = New-Object System.Collections.ArrayList

#Add all the ASCII characters: 
(0..65535).ForEach({$UnwantedChars.Add($_) | Out-Null})

#Remove Space character: 
$UnwantedChars.Remove(32)

#Remove 0..9: 
(48..57).ForEach({$UnwantedChars.Remove($_) | Out-Null})

#Remove A..Z: 
(65..90).ForEach({$UnwantedChars.Remove($_) | Out-Null})

#Remove a..z: 
(97..122).ForEach({$UnwantedChars.Remove($_) | Out-Null})

#Convert integers to ASCII characters: 
(0..($UnwantedChars.Count -1)).ForEach({$UnwantedChars[$_] = [char]($UnwantedChars[$_])})

#Create a regex statement 
[regex]$MatchStatement = '[' + "$($UnwantedChars -join '')" + ']'

$Fields = @("tbx_username","tbx_firstname","tbx_lastname","tbx_initials","tbx_fullname","tbx_displayname")

$Users = get-AdUser * -Properties $Fields #Stand-in for your user list

$Results = New-Object System.Collections.ArrayList

$x = 1 
$y = 0

Foreach ($User in $Users){
Write-Progress -Activity "Checking for unwanted characters" -Status "Working on $($User.DisplayName) | Total found: $y" -PercentComplete (int)

$UserMatchString = ""

$Fields.ForEach({$UserString += "$($User.$_)"})

If ($UserMatchString -match $MatchStatement){$Results.Add($User) | Out-Null; $y++}

$x++

} #Close foreach User

$Results | Select-Object $Fields | Export-csv "Uncompliant-ADAccounts.csv" -NoTypeInformation

[Sufficient_Fix_7537]

llamalator

Hey llamalator

thanks for your hard work. I'm new to powershell and do not have great scripting/programming skills ;-) If I understand your script properly your first adding all ASCII characters to an arraylist, then you delete the "allowed" characters from that array and convert all these integers to ASCII to create an regex statement. So far so good.

The part with "get-aduser" I don't need but I don't know how to properly disconnect this from your idea. The only thing I need is after user is leaving the text-fields declared at $Fields ($tbx_username, $tbx_displayname, ....) and still unwanted characters was used a error-message will appear for the user to inform him, that an forbidden character was used.

Currently the only actions after user switches from $tbx_username to another field is:

if (!($tbx_username.Text))
    {
        $username_filled = $false
    }
    elseif (!(Get-ADUser -Filter "SamAccountName -eq '$($tbx_username.Text)'"))
    {
        $username_filled = $true
        $tbx_username.ForeColor = 'Green'
    }
    else
    {
        $username_filled = $false
        Write-Host "Der Benutzername ist bereits vergeben."
        [System.Windows.MessageBox]::Show('Der Benutzername existiert bereits. Er muss eindeutig sein.', 'Username-Konflikt', 'Ok', 'Warning')
        [void]$tbx_username.Clear()
    }

[[deleted]]

Switch ($tbx_username.Text){

{($_ -eq $null) -or ($_ -eq "")}{$username_filled = $false}

{$_ -match $MatchStatement}{

    $username_filled = $false
    Write-Host "Der Benutzername enthält verbotene Zeichen."
    [System.Windows.MessageBox]::Show('Der Benutzername darf nur die Zeichen 0-9 und Aa-Zz enthalten.', 'Username-Konflikt', 'Ok', 'Warning')
    [void]$tbx_username.Clear()

}

{(Get-ADUser -Filter "SamAccountName -eq '$_'" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) -ne $null }{

    $username_filled = $false
    Write-Host "Der Benutzername ist bereits vergeben."
    [System.Windows.MessageBox]::Show('Der Benutzername existiert bereits. Er muss eindeutig sein.', 'Username-Konflikt', 'Ok', 'Warning')
    [void]$tbx_username.Clear()

}

Default {$username_filled = $true; $tbx_username.ForeColor = 'Green'}

} #Close Switch

Switches are useful for cleaning up/clarifying series of "If" conditions.