PowerShell - problem with substring in a pipeline - powershell

Question

I am trying to replace users description with a substring of his description. I want it to be just the first 10 letters. I try like this:
Get-ADUser abc -Properties description | Set-ADUser -Description "($($PSItem.Description).substring(0,10))"
Can you give me a hint how to make it work?

Answer 1

You never mentioned in what way it doesn't work for you but I assume it's because your SubString method never gets called but instead gets interpreted as text in your string. Try changing your line to the following instead and see if it does what you expect.
You could try it out first by just writing the output to screen rather than (potentially) updating your AD object with the wrong value.
Get-ADUser -abc -Properties Description | foreach { Write-Output "$($PSItem.Description.SubString(0,10))" }
And then run your line once you've made sure you have what you need.
Get-ADUser -abc -Properties Description | Set-ADUser -Description "$($PSItem.Description.SubString(0,10))"

Answer 2

this one gives good output:
Get-ADUser abc -Properties Description | foreach { Write-Output "$($PSItem.Description.SubString(0,10))" }
But this one not:
Get-ADUser abc -Properties Description | Set-ADUser -Description "$($PSItem.Description.SubString(0,10))"
it is giving error like this:
You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression. At line:1
char:71
+ ... on | Set-ADUser -description "$($PSItem.description.SubString(0,10))"
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [], RuntimeException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull Set-ADUser : replace At line:1 char:44
+ ... scription | Set-ADUser -description "$($PSItem.description.SubString( ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (CN=abc...C=DOMAIN,DC=com:ADUser) [Set-ADUser],
ADInvalidOperationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : ActiveDirectoryServer:0,Microsoft.ActiveDirectory.Management.Commands.SetADUser