How can you find a user in active directory from C#?

Question

I\'m trying to figure out how to search AD from C# similarly to how \"Find Users, Contacts, and Groups\" works in the Active Directory Users and Computers tool. I have a str

Answer 1

You need to build the search string based on how you're looking for the user.

using (var adFolderObject = new DirectoryEntry())
{
     using(var adSearcherObject = new DirectorySearcher(adFolderObject))
     {
          adSearcherObject.SearchScope = SearchScope.Subtree;
          adSearcherObject.Filter = "(&(objectClass=person)(" + userType + "=" + userName + "))";

          return adSearcherObject.FindOne();
     }
}

userType should either be sAMAccountName or CN depending on how the username is formatted.

ex:
firstname.lastname (or flastname) will usually be the sAMAccountName
FirstName LastName will usually be the CN

Answer 2

System.DirectoryServices has two namespaces...DirectoryEntry and DirectorySearcher.

More info on the DirectorySearcher here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.directoryservices.directorysearcher.aspx

You can then use the Filter property to filter by Group, user etc...

So if you wanted to filter by account name you would set the .Filter to:

"(&(sAMAccountName=bsmith))"

and run the FilterAll method. This will return a SearchResultCollection that you can loop through and pull information about the user.