How do I fix this script? - powershell

Question

I am trying to get this short script to work and I don't understand why, PowerShell gives somewhat garbled and useless error messages!
Script:
$us = Read-Host 'Enter Your User Group Name:' |Get-ADGroup -Filter {name -like "*$us*"} -Properties Description,info | Select Name | Sort Name
Error:
Get-ADGroup : The input object cannot be bound to any parameters for the
command either because the command does not take pipeline input or the input
and its properties do not match any of the parameters that take pipeline input.
At line:1 char:42
+ ... ser Name:' |Get-ADGroup -Filter {name -like "*$us*"} -Properties Desc ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (River:PSObject) [Get-ADGroup], ParameterBindingException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : InputObjectNotBound,Microsoft.ActiveDirectory.Management.Commands.GetADGroup

Answer 1

You can't pipe your string definition to the filtered commandlet in that manner. Declare the variable first.
Once you;ve done that, filter as required then select the properties you need (Description property is needed as it isn't returned by default by the commandlet whilst the Name property is).
$us = Read-Host 'Enter Your User Group Name:'
Get-ADGroup -filter "Name -like '*$us*'" -Properties Description | Select-Object Name , Description | Sort-Object Name

Answer 2

The problem is $US is not set until the end of the pipeline, and therefore is empty.
Try:
$us = Read-Host 'Enter Your User Group Name:' | # get the name
%{"*$($_)*"} | # Add the asterisk wildcard.
%{Get-ADGroup -filter {name -like $_}} | # read from AD
Select Name |
Sort Name
This will ask you for the group name, and then save the results to the pipeline (not to $us). The pipeline value is used to then add your asterisks and then again output the value to the pipeline, before the pipeline is then used for the Get-Adgroups commmand.
Once the results of the lookup is returned, it is cleaned up, and reduced to just name, then sorted to give you a list of names in sorted order.
The "-Properties Description,info" isn't needed because all you want is the name, so why requested description or info fields?
I just tested this, and despite what Ansgar Wiechers said, this does work. If this answer helps you, please vote it up.