piping get-aduser output to set-aduser within a foreach loop - powershell

Question

I am trying to get a list of users where the telephone attrib is null and update the atrrib with a phone number, so far here is what I have:
$allen=gc "C:\0NIX\03SCRIPTS\TMP\jkirb\allen.txt"
$phonenumber = "972-xxx-xxx"
FOREACH ($user in $allen)
{
$nophone = get-aduser $user -pr *| where {$_.telephonenumber -eq $null} | select samaccountname |ft -HideTableHeaders
Set-ADuser -identity "$nophone" -replace #{telephonenumber="$phonenumber"}
}
Which is erroring with this:
Set-ADuser : Cannot find an object with identity: 'Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Internal.Format.FormatStartData Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Internal.Format.GroupStartData
Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Internal.Format.FormatEntryData Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Internal.Format.GroupEndData Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Internal.Format.FormatEndData' under:
'DC=bhcs,DC=pvt'.
At line:7 char:1
+ Set-ADuser -identity "$nophone" -replace #{telephonenumber="$phonenumber"}
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (Microsoft.Power...t.FormatEndData:ADUser) [Set-ADUser], ADIdentityNotFoundException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : Cannot find an object with identity: 'Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Internal.Format.FormatStartData Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Internal.Format.GroupStartData Mic
rosoft.PowerShell.Commands.Internal.Format.FormatEntryData Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Internal.Format.GroupEndData Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Internal.Format.FormatEndData' under: 'DC=
bhcs,DC=pvt'.,Microsoft.ActiveDirectory.Management.Commands.SetADUser

Answer 1

You are adding some custom formatting to your object when you use any of the Format-* cmdlets (Format-Table in your case) and this ruins the object for future pipeline use.
Try this instead:
$allen=gc "C:\0NIX\03SCRIPTS\TMP\jkirb\allen.txt"
$phonenumber = "972-xxx-xxx"
FOREACH ($user in $allen)
{
$nophone = get-aduser $user -pr *| where {$_.telephonenumber -eq $null}
Set-ADuser -identity "$nophone" -replace #{telephonenumber="$phonenumber"}
}