Outputting Array Into Excel - arrays

Question

I've taken an issue with a fairly old script we use at my office to assign eFax numbers. Its owner is of course long gone. I've fixed the basic use issues with the script, but I'm trying to streamline it. The current issue I want to address is how it checks a number isn't in use.
I've deciphered that the current build has the phone number ranges listed in a text file like "236,4000,4199" and then it goes through that range and checks each number against every user profile in Active Directory, so its certainly slow. So what I'm looking at is a way to have the array of phone numbers (about 4k total) pulled and entered into a spreadsheet and then I would just use a separate script to do that check against AD to remove the ones in use. That way it just needs to reference a single document instead of a few thousand numbers against a few thousand users.
I don't have anything yet on putting it into Excel as I haven't fully understood the array to verify the phone number and I don't know how I'd output each number into Excel. Here's the original code related to the array to read the numbers:
ipmo act*
$FaxNUmbersINuse = #()
$AvailableFaxNumbers = #()
$AllFaxNumbers = #()
# - WFM Fax Numbers
$FaxNumberRange = Get-Content "\\CEWP9023\Share\FaxNumberRange.txt"
# - Get all Fax numbers
Write-Host "Generating fax numbers..."
foreach ($FaxNumber in $FaxNumberRange) {
$inparray = $FaxNumber.Split(',')
$v1 = $inparray[0]
$v2 = $inparray[1]
$v3 = $inparray[2]
$AllFaxNumbers += $v2..$v3 | foreach {"512-"+$v1+"-"+$_}
}
$FaxNumbersList = $null
$FaxNumbersList = #{}
$TMwithFaxs = Get-ADUser -Filter 'Fax -like "512-*"' -SearchBase "OU=REGIONS,DC=wfm,DC=pvt" -Properties * | select DisplayName, Fax
foreach ($TM in $TMwithFaxs) {
$FaxNumbersList.Add($TM.DisplayName, $TM.Fax)
}
foreach ($AllFaxNumber in $AllFaxNumbers) {
if ($FaxNumbersList.ContainsValue($AllFaxNumber)) {
$FaxNUmbersINuse += $FaxNumbersList

Answer 1

If you are making a new CSV file (and not modifying an existing one), consider Export-CSV.

Answer 2

I'm looking at is a way to have the array of phone numbers (about 4k total) pulled and entered into a spreadsheet
You can export the generated range or the Active Directory range using these lines. I've put them into the script below, and annotated it to try and explain how the numbers are generated.
$AllFaxNumbers | Out-File "C:\temp\AllFaxNumber.txt"
$TMwithFaxs | Export-Csv "C:\temp\ADFaxNumbers.csv" -NoType
The reason these are two different methods is because of the types of objects.
$AllFaxNumbers is an array. It's a simple list of fax numbers and has a single property - Length - that tells you how many fax numbers are in it.
TMwithFaxs is a bit more complex; it's a Microsoft.ActiveDirectory.Management.ADUser object*, with only the Displayname and Fax pulled out and all of the other AD information discarded.
Most likely this won't resolve everything for you - it's best to break your problem down into pieces and ask about a specific problem when you post a question.
ipmo act*
$FaxNUmbersINuse = #()
$AvailableFaxNumbers = #()
$AllFaxNumbers = #()
# - WFM Fax Numbers
$FaxNumberRange = Get-Content "\\CEWP9023\Share\FaxNumberRange.txt"
# - Get all Fax numbers
Write-Host "Generating fax numbers..."
#using 236,4000,4199 as an example
foreach ($FaxNumber in $FaxNumberRange) {
$inparray = $FaxNumber.Split(',') # split 236,4000,4199 into an array
$v1 = $inparray[0] # 236 is the first element
$v2 = $inparray[1] # 4000 is the second element
$v3 = $inparray[2] # 4199 is the third element
# generate the numbers "512-236-4000" to "512-236-4199"
# i.e. "512-236-4000", "512-236-4001", "512-236-4002" etc
$AllFaxNumbers += $v2..$v3 | foreach {"512-"+$v1+"-"+$_}
}
$AllFaxNumbers | Out-File "C:\temp\AllFaxNumber.txt"
$FaxNumbersList = $null
$FaxNumbersList = #{}
$TMwithFaxs = Get-ADUser -Filter 'Fax -like "512-*"' -SearchBase "OU=REGIONS,DC=wfm,DC=pvt" -Properties * | select DisplayName, Fax
$TMwithFaxs | Export-Csv "C:\temp\ADFaxNumbers.csv" -NoType
foreach ($TM in $TMwithFaxs) {
$FaxNumbersList.Add($TM.DisplayName, $TM.Fax)
}
foreach ($AllFaxNumber in $AllFaxNumbers) {
if ($FaxNumbersList.ContainsValue($AllFaxNumber)) {
$FaxNUmbersINuse += $FaxNumbersList
* Because you've selected a subset of all available properties, it may just be a generic PSObject - i don't have AD locally to test.

Answer 3

If I understand the question correctly, you have a text file from which you can generate a list of all possible fax numbers.
Next, you want to compare that to the numbers found in AD and using that, you want to create a new file containing all numbers that are available.
This approach is maybe a little different in that it creates a single CSV file for import in Excel with information about both the used and the available numbers.
The resulting CSV file will be like:
"UserName","FaxNumber","Available"
"Billy Joel","512-326-4000","No"
"","512-326-4001","Yes"
"Alice Cooper","512-326-4002","No"
The code for this:
Import-Module ActiveDirectory
$path = '\\CEWP9023\Share'
$adSearchBase = 'OU=REGIONS,DC=wfm,DC=pvt'
##########################################################
# Step 1: read the number ranges from the text file
##########################################################
# - WFM Fax Numbers. Format: AreaCode, RangeStart, RangeEnd
$faxNumberRange = Get-Content (Join-Path -Path $path -ChildPath 'FaxNumberRange.txt')
# - Get all Fax possible numbers
Write-Host "Generating all possible fax numbers..."
# use a HashSet object for faster lookup
$generatedNumbers = New-Object 'System.Collections.Generic.HashSet[String]'
foreach ($item in $faxNumberRange) {
$areaCode, [int]$rangeStart, [int]$rangeEnd = $item -split ','
# add the numbers unformatted for easier comparison later
$rangeStart..$rangeEnd | ForEach-Object {
[void]$generatedNumbers.Add(("512{0}{1}" -f $areaCode, $_ ))
}
}
##########################################################
# Step 2: find AD users with faxnumber
##########################################################
# create a list containing PSCustomObjects storing user DisplayName
# and the faxnumber as it is entered in AD
Write-Host "Retrieving all users with fax numbers..."
# create a Hasttable for the info gathered from AD
$userNumbers = #{}
Get-ADUser -Filter 'Fax -like "512-*"' -SearchBase $adSearchBase -Properties DisplayName, Fax |
ForEach-Object {
$fax = $_.Fax -replace '\D', '' # remove all non-numeric characters
if ($userNumbers.ContainsKey($fax)) {
# Hmmmm. This number is already in the list. Possibly two or more users are found with the same number
# Add this Nth user with a pipe symbol to the UserName property.
$userNumbers.$fax.UserName += (' | {0}' -f $_.DisplayName)
}
else {
$faxInfo = [PSCustomObject]#{
UserName = $_.DisplayName
FaxNumber = $_.Fax
Available = 'No'
}
# use the unformatted faxnumber as Key
$userNumbers.$fax = $faxInfo
}
}
##########################################################
# Step 3: create a final list containing all numbers
##########################################################
# Test each generated number against the (unformatted) AD faxnumbers
# and add them in a new All-Numbers list
Write-Host "Generating complete list of fax numbers and users..."
# use an arraylist object for better performance
$allNumbers = New-Object 'System.Collections.ArrayList'
# loop through all generated numbers
foreach ($fax in $generatedNumbers) {
if ($userNumbers.ContainsKey($fax)) {
# this is a number in use so add the info from AD
[void]$allNumbers.Add($userNumbers.$fax)
}
else {
# create a new entry for this unused number
$faxInfo = [PSCustomObject]#{
UserName = '' # no user DisplayName also means: number is available
FaxNumber = '{0}-{1}-{2}' -f $fax.Substring(0,3), $fax.Substring(3,3), $fax.Substring(6)
Available = 'Yes'
}
[void]$allNumbers.Add($faxInfo)
}
}
# you can free some memory here
$generatedNumbers.Clear()
$userNumbers.Clear()
# output the completed list as CSV file
$allNumbers.ToArray() | Export-Csv -Path (Join-Path -Path $path -ChildPath 'AllFaxNumbers.csv') -NoTypeInformation