PowerShell Switch not working with hyphenation - powershell

Question

I'm creating a series of new PSObjects, from a CSV import, and then adding them to $new. I'm using a switch to try and set the value for the "Notes" property, as the object is being created\added, and I've run into something 'hinky'.
When I run this...
$import = Import-Csv c:\somerandom.csv
$new = #()
foreach ($Item in $Import) {
$obj = New-Object PsObject -Property #{
Name = $item.Name
Description = $Item.Description
Quantity = $Item.Quantity
Vendor = $Item.Vendor
SubCategory = "Misc"
Notes = ""
}
switch ($obj.Name) {
"iPod" { $obj.Notes = "Burn with the rest of the Apple garbage"}
"nVidia GTX 780ti" { $obj.Notes = "Steal immediately!" }
default { $obj.Notes= "Sorry man... I have no idea what that is"}
}
$new += $obj
}
... it works as expected. All of the entries from $import, are recreated in $new, with the addition of my "SubCategory" and "Notes" noteproperties (iPod gets burn tag, 780ti slated to be stolen). But when I run with the following as the switch...
switch ($obj.Name) {
'SOFM090-107-01-PF-R' { $obj.Notes = "Burn with the rest of the Apple garbage"}
'M094-107-01-PF-R' { $obj.Notes = "Steal immediately!" }
default { $obj.Notes = "Sorry man... I have no idea what that is"}
}
... It sets all the entries to the 'default' setting on the switch. I tried running the switch with a non-hyphenated name for one entry, and a hyphenated entry for the other, and only the hyphenated version was set properly.
The above code is altered from the actual code, but it properly illustrates what I'm trying to do. I need to add a noteproperty that is based off a list of part numbers, and will fill in the "Notes" entry with a tag of my choosing.
I've tried it with single quotes, double quotes, using the -wildcard and replacing the switch hyphens with *'s, and putting the ` character in before the -'s. Nothing seems to be working.

Answer 1

There's nothing wrong with the code, so the problem must lie in the data. I verified that it works fine with a CSV file that has those exact hyphenated values in the "Name" column.
If the switch doesn't work with the hyphenated names, then the values being imported into the Name property don't match what you have in the switch statement. It's a good idea to always post the data you're working with, or a sample of it, because often that's the source of the problem. Even when it isn't, it helps other people understand what you're trying to accomplish and what your code does. Since we don't have the data, I can suggest a few likely possibilities:
You're manually typing the names into the switch statement, and they look like what's in the CSV, but don't actually match, e.g. you're confusing O with 0 because they look the same in the font you're working with. I'd have suspected something like an en-dash instead of a hyphen, but you say you tried replacing the hyphens with wildcards
You have trailing spaces
You're single-quoting the hyphenated names in the CSV file (Import-Csv only understands double quotes; single quotes would be included in the value).
Here are a couple of things you can try to help identify why the data doesn't match (separately, not both together):
Replace switch ($obj.Name) { with switch -regex ($obj.Name) {
Use the following code to show you exactly what PowerShell is seeing in the Name property for each item and which switch conditions are being executed:
Write-Host -NoNewline "[$($obj.Name)] "
switch ($obj.Name) {
'SOFM090-107-01-PF-R' {Write-Host 'burn'; $obj.Notes = "Burn with the rest of the Apple garbage"}
'M094-107-01-PF-R' {Write-Host 'steal'; $obj.Notes = "Steal immediately!"}
default {Write-Host 'sorry'; $obj.Notes = "Sorry man... I have no idea what that is"}
}
If you post the data, we'll probably be able to tell you exactly why it's not working. But I can pretty much guarantee you that if you're using that code, the problem is that the imported Name values that aren't being matched with the right Notes values are in some way not the same as what you have in the switch conditions.