How to replace a null or empty value in PowerShell? - powershell

Question

I have a function pulling data from an appliance, here is the code:
$allSFD = get-sklqsessions -apil $userAdmin $passAdmin $applianceIP <- so far there is no issue here
now :
if ($allSFD)
{
<#$allSFD | select-object #{N='username'; E={$_.username}},
#{N='Client IP'; E={$_.publicip}}, | format-table -autosize
#>
### write files
$allSFD | export-Clixml -path "c:\users\temp\file1.xml"
}
else { write-warning "no users connected to the appliance"}
whenever there is a user connected to the system, but idle, the appliance will keep the users in the connected list but his/her ip will be empty no IP, so no data in client ip = publicip.
Then I want to add something like 0.0.0.0
Right now any idle user is getting exported to the xml just a user name no ip , the publicip is empty.
How can I achieve this?

Answer 1

You can put anything you like into a property expression, including control statements like if(){...}:
$allSFD |Select Username,#{N='Client IP'; E={if([string]::IsNullOrEmpty($_.publicip)){"0.0.0.0"}else{$_.publicip}}} |Export-CliXml ...
Single-line if/else statements might look a bit "messy", but as #mklement0 helpfully points out, in PowerShell 7+ we have a ternary statement that we can use instead:
$allSFD |Select Username,#{N='Client IP'; E={[string]::IsNullOrEmpty($_.publicip) ? "0.0.0.0" : $_.publicip }} |Export-CliXml ...
This makes it slightly more readable :)