Issue while saving collection into csv using powershell - csv

Question

I have below powershell code using which am saving results into csv file but I couldnt save them in csv file.
[Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.AnalysisServices")
$SSASServerName = "SSAS_ServerName"
$SSASDB = "TESTDB"
$SSASServer = New-Object Microsoft.AnalysisServices.Server
$SSASServer.Connect($SSASServerName)
$SSASDatabase = $SSASServer.Databases.Item($SSASDB)
$SSASDatabase.Roles | Select-Object Name, Members | Export-Csv C:\dev\psout\test.Csv
pause
This script extracts name of the role and members associated to that role. one role can have multiple members.
I tried above script, it exports role but in Members field, I see string "Microsoft.AnalysisServices.RoleMemberCollection" for all the roles.
If I do not export to csv, I can view the members in either ps window or text file.
what am i missing?

Answer 1

You can only export values that can be represented as a string to a csv-file. Members is a collection-object that may include multiple RoleMember-objects, so you need use a calculated property to access the Name-property inside each RoleMember. How to approach this depends on the desired output.
You can join the objects Name-property to a single string
$SSASDatabase.Roles |
Select-Object Name, #{n="Members";e={ ($_.Members | % { $_.Name }) -join '; '}} |
Export-Csv C:\dev\psout\test.Csv -NoTypeInformation
Role1,"User1; User2"
Role2,"User3; User4"
Or you could make one row in the csv-file "per row per member" which I usually prefer since it's easier to filter in Excel.
$SSASDatabase.Roles | ForEach-Object {
#Store role-reference so we can access it later inside the member-foreach
$r = $_
$r.Members | ForEach-Object {
#Store member-reference so it's available inside Selec-Object
$m = $_
$r | Select-Object Name, #{n="Member";e={ $m.Name }}
}
} | Export-Csv C:\dev\psout\test.Csv -NoTypeInformation
Role1,User1
Role1,User2
Role2,User3
...