Use -notlike to filter out multiple strings in PowerShell

Question

I\'m trying to read the event log for a security audit for all users except two, but is it possible to do that with the -notlike operator?

It\'s somethi

Answer 1

In order to support "matches any of ..." scenarios, I created a function that is pretty easy to read. My version has a lot more to it because its a PowerShell 2.0 cmdlet but the version I'm pasting below should work in 1.0 and has no frills.

You call it like so:

Get-Process | Where-Match Company -Like '*VMWare*','*Microsoft*'
Get-Process | Where-Match Company -Regex '^Microsoft.*'

filter Where-Match($Selector,[String[]]$Like,[String[]]$Regex) {

    if ($Selector -is [String]) { $Value = $_.$Selector }
    elseif ($Selector -is [ScriptBlock]) { $Value = &$Selector }
    else { throw 'Selector must be a ScriptBlock or property name' }

    if ($Like.Length) {
        foreach ($Pattern in $Like) {
            if ($Value -like $Pattern) { return $_ }
        }
    }

    if ($Regex.Length) {
        foreach ($Pattern in $Regex) {
            if ($Value -match $Pattern) { return $_ }
        }
    }

}

filter Where-NotMatch($Selector,[String[]]$Like,[String[]]$Regex) {

    if ($Selector -is [String]) { $Value = $_.$Selector }
    elseif ($Selector -is [ScriptBlock]) { $Value = &$Selector }
    else { throw 'Selector must be a ScriptBlock or property name' }

    if ($Like.Length) {
        foreach ($Pattern in $Like) {
            if ($Value -like $Pattern) { return }
        }
    }

    if ($Regex.Length) {
        foreach ($Pattern in $Regex) {
            if ($Value -match $Pattern) { return }
        }
    }

    return $_

}

Answer 2

Easiest way I find for multiple searches is to pipe them all (probably heavier CPU use) but for your example user:

Get-EventLog -LogName Security | where {$_.UserName -notlike "*user1"} |  where {$_.UserName -notlike "*user2"}

Answer 3

$listOfUsernames = @("user1", "user2", "etc", "and so on")
Get-EventLog -LogName Security | 
    where { $_.Username -notmatch (
        '(' + [string]::Join(')|(', $listOfUsernames) + ')') }

It's a little crazy I'll grant you, and it fails to escape the usernames (in the unprobable case a username uses a Regex escape character like '\' or '(' ), but it works.

As "slipsec" mentioned above, use -notcontains if possible.