Hello,


I have the following array:
$e = @("user*","te*")

I want something like “Dir | ? {$_.name -notcontains $e}“ to work.
If I fill the array with “$e = @("users")” then it works fine.
I have the following function that does the trick but I still find its must be easier…

function notinarray
{
param($str,$arr)
$found = $true
foreach ($val in $arr) {if ($str -like $val) {$found = $false}}
return $found
}

If you have a working function go with it.

I believe the syntax your looking for is...

Dir | ? {$_.name -notlike $e[0] -and $_.name -notlike $e[1] -and $_.name -notlike $e[2]} etc...

I don't want a long list of -notlikes but just 1 array to fill.
This so I have a more readable script and easier to maintain.

But thanks for you reply.

You've got it backwards, it should be:

$e = "user*","te*"
Dir | ?{$e -notcontains $_.name} | ...do something...

I see I forgot the most important requirement...
The array is filled with something* (so with an asterisk)

Ok then use a function to clean up the code and then your one-liner will look cleaner:

I'm not sure why you are using an asterisk in your check, but if it is because you are used to cmd prompt to indicate (e.g. "user*" ) if the name has user and anything following user then it is not needed with the -match operator. The -match uses regular expressions so as long as 'user' exist in the string you are checking it will pass. If you want to duplicate a regex with cmd * then it would be "user.*' (dot being any character and * indicating 0 to any number of previous character)

However if you are looking for a literal name with an asterisk (which is unlikely as it is an illegal character in a filename) you could now use asterisk in your array and get the desired results.

You could use the -like operator to use wildcards: