Using -eq across two datasets in powershell - powershell

Question

I'm in a juncture here. I have two datasets in powershell. Dataset 1($table) is received via an sql query (varies from 12 to 17 rows and has 8 columns) and Dataset 2($team) is hard coded in the script (has 18 rows and 2 columns). Both of these have a common column, Contest. Now the script I have to get working is - for each Contest in $table.contest, get other corresponding parameters from $table and match the Contest in $team.contest and get the corresponding $team.column2 value into play.
I'm able to get the data individually from each table, but when I use "-eq" condition across $table.contest & $team.contest, nothing happens.
This is the snippet from the code where I'm facing the problem.
$Contests = ($DataSet.Contest)
$Team = ($Team.cont)
foreach($Contest in $Contests)
{
$ContestName = $Contest
$stats = $DataSet | where {$_.contest -eq $contest}
$signups = $stats.SignUps
$newbies = $stats.Newbies
$uploads = $stats.Uploads
$views = $stats.Views
$eviews = $stats.EViews
$votes = $stats.Votes
$date = $stats.EndDate
$teamx = $team | where {$_ -eq $stats.contest}
$contest
$teamx
}
$contest shows the contest name, but $teamx is blank
The following is the changed code with respect hash tables. I tried to convert object array to string but in vain.
$team = #{
"Short Film" = "Member4";
"Student Photography" = "Member0";
"Student Art" = "Member1";
"Macro Photography" = "Member2";
"Landscape Photography" = "Member3";
}
$Contests = ($DataSet.Contest)
$Contests = $Contests | where {$_ -ne "" -and $_ -ne $null -and $_ -ne [dbnull]::value}
foreach($Contest in $Contests)
{
$ContestName = $Contest
$stats = $DataSet | where {$_.contest -eq $contest}
$signups = $stats.SignUps
$datatemp = $stats.Contest
if ($team.ContainsKey($datatemp)) {write-output "Exists"}
else {write-output "Doesn't Exist"}
$datatemp
$team.count
}
I tried directly feeding $Contest, $ContestName, and $stast.Contest inside ContainsKey, but all the time output is the same -
Doesn't Exist
Short Film
5
Doesn't Exist
Student Photography
5
Doesn't Exist
Student Art
5
Doesn't Exist
Macro Photography
5
Doesn't Exist
Landscape Photography
5
What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

I can't tell for sure without knowing exactly what's in $Dataset, but your symptoms all point to trailing whitespace in the Contest value that's causing your tests to fail.
Try this and see if you get different results:
foreach($Contest in $Contests)
{
$ContestName = $Contest
$stats = $DataSet | where {$_.contest -eq $contest}
$signups = $stats.SignUps
$datatemp = $stats.Contest.trim()
if ($team.ContainsKey($datatemp)) {write-output "Exists"}
else {write-output "Doesn't Exist"}
$datatemp
$team.count
}