Show output on screen and in file in PowerShell

Question

How can I get all this to not only output on the screen, but to save to a text file in CSV format?

$OUs = Get-ADObject -LDAPFilter "(objectCategory=organizationalUnit)" ` -SearchBase "OU=GA,OU=EAST,DC=corp,DC=chm,DC=com" | Select distinguishedName ForEach ($OU In $OUs) { $OU.distinguishedName Get-ADComputer -SearchBase $OU.distinguishedName -SearchScope OneLevel ` -Filter * | Select Name }

I have tried

$OUs = Get-ADObject -LDAPFilter "(objectCategory=organizationalUnit)" ` -SearchBase "OU=GA,OU=EAST,DC=corp,DC=chartercom,DC=com" | Select distinguishedName ForEach ($OU In $OUs) { $OU.distinguishedName Get-ADComputer -SearchBase $OU.distinguishedName -SearchScope OneLevel ` -Filter * | Select Name } | | export-CSV c:\temp\outfile.csv –noType

And many other formats, but I always get the error:

An empty pipe element is not allowed.

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-06 09:36:50Z

80

Use the Tee-Object cmdlet.

The Tee-Object cmdlet enables you to display data in the Windows PowerShell window and to save that same data to a text file, all with a single command.

dir | Tee-Object -file dir.txt

You should use it like,

 ForEach ($OU In $OUs) { $OU.distinguishedName Get-ADComputer -SearchBase $OU.distinguishedName -SearchScope OneLevel ` -Filter * | Select Name } | Tee-Object -file c:\temp\outfile.txt

Note: It has an alias, tee, which is the same as Unix' tee.

edited Aug 6, 2015 at 9:36

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jun 22, 2012 at 18:20

Shiplu Mokaddim

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7 Comments

Ron Over a year ago

$OUs = Get-ADObject -LDAPFilter "(objectCategory=organizationalUnit)" ` -SearchBase "OU=GA,OU=EAST,DC=corp,DC=chm,DC=com" | Select distinguishedName ForEach ($OU In $OUs) { $OU.distinguishedName Get-ADComputer -SearchBase $OU.distinguishedName -SearchScope OneLevel ` -Filter * | Select Name } Tee-Object -file c:\temp\outfile.txt

Ron Over a year ago

I am and i am getting the same error }| Tee-Object -file c:\temp\outfile.txt An empty pipe element is not allowed. At line:8 char:3

Ron Over a year ago

i got it to work with Tee but i had to (and i will try to use the right terms) wrap that in { } and maike it a function. I was then able to Tee the function. Thanks

Chris S Over a year ago

Tee-Object has not exactly the most meaningful name Microsoft could've given the cmdlet. But then, it is Powershell..

Livven Over a year ago

Unfortunately Tee-Object does not have an -Encoding option so it always outputs in UTF-16, which many tools don't support properly.

|

fcdt · Accepted Answer · 2020-09-24 20:39:06Z

2

This works:

Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product | Select Name, Version | Sort Name | Tee-Object -file h:\InstalledApps.TXT

edited Sep 24, 2020 at 20:39

fcdt

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answered Sep 24, 2020 at 14:21

David Webb

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1 Comment

NaN Over a year ago

How do we append to file instead of overwrite it? Use the -Append parameter of Tee-Object

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-15 04:10:10Z

An empty pipe element is not allowed.

You have a duplicate bar in the last line:

} | | export-CSV c:\temp\outfile.csv –noType

That doesn't fix the error completely, because you can't pipe directly from the foreach loop. You can export it another way to a CSV file instead of a text file like Tee-Object does (you could convert Tee-Object to CSV). This way, it outputs the results to a CSV file and prints the results to the screen:

$OUs = Get-ADObject -LDAPFilter "(objectCategory=organizationalUnit)" ` -SearchBase "OU=GA,OU=EAST,DC=corp,DC=chartercom,DC=com" | Select distinguishedName $results = @() ForEach ($OU In $OUs) { $OU.distinguishedName Get-ADComputer -SearchBase $OU.distinguishedName -SearchScope OneLevel ` -Filter * | Select Name } $results | Export-Csv c:\temp\outfile.csv -NoTypeInformation write-host $results

This can also be done with a much simpler script:

Get-ADComputer -SearchBase "OU=GA,OU=EAST,DC=corp,DC=chartercom,DC=com" -SearchScope OneLevel -Filter * | Select Name | Export-Csv c:\temp\outfile.csv -NoTypeInformation Import-Csv c:\temp\outfile.csv

nExoR LU · Accepted Answer · 2021-04-20 13:52:16Z

tee-object is nice but very limited. for those who need more control over the function - use write-log function from eNLib

install-module eNLib

write-log enables to fork text, objects, define logfile with start-logging function, doesn't require to define logfile name each time - very useful for advanced scripting.

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