Hello, I am getting some unexpected results using the Get-TaskResult cmdlet. What I am looking for are the task results that do not have a particular string of text (ex.: System.DiscoveryData) in the task’s Output field. Sounds simple enough, but check out the following results: >(Get-TaskResult).Count 168 PS Monitoring:\PPD%002dHQ%002dA45.CNPPD.LAB >(Get-TaskResult -Criteria "Output LIKE '%System.DiscoveryData%'").Count 28 PS Monitoring:\PPD%002dHQ%002dA45.CNPPD.LAB >(Get-TaskResult -Criteria "Output NOT LIKE '%System.DiscoveryData%'").Count 73 One would normally expect something more like 140 (168-28) at this point. MSDN document entitled “Criteria Expression Syntax” does not seem to support the “NOT LIKE”, which might explain the incorrect result. I therefore attempted the same task using regular expressions. The only way I found to return a successful “match” for a pattern that does not match (i.e. the target string does not contain the supplied pattern), is to use the RegEx “negative lookahead” feature, which is apparently supported by .NET’s RegEx implementation. PS Monitoring:\PPD%002dHQ%002dA45.CNPPD.LAB >(Get-TaskResult -Criteria "Output MATCHES 'System\.DiscoveryData'").Count 28 PS Monitoring:\PPD%002dHQ%002dA45.CNPPD.LAB >(Get-TaskResult -Criteria "Output MATCHES '^((?!System\.DiscoveryData).)*$'").Count PS Monitoring:\PPD%002dHQ%002dA45.CNPPD.LAB Any ideas? Larry

If you want to test out criteria syntax, run a query against the DB directly. The criteria is essentially just the "where" clause of a SQL query, and it uses the same wildcards and operators. Try running "select * from JobStatus where Output LIKE '%System.DiscoveryData%'", along with corresponding NOT LIKE and see what kind of results you get. If I'm not mistaken, the LIKE / NOT LIKE operators always return false when the field is NULL - so those task results with NULL Output might make up the remainder. It might be easier to work only in powershell-land. Something like: Get-TaskResult |?{$_.Output –notmatch ‘System\.DiscoveryData’} # or Get-TaskResult |?{$_.Output –notlike ‘*System.DiscoveryData*’} Thanks, -Lincoln

Good morning Lincoln, As you suggested, I really wanted to avoid querying the database directly, preferring a PowerShell solution to all others. A glance at your solution (which works BTW) has led me to a more efficient solution, which leverages Get-TaskResult’s –Criteria option, follows: Get-TaskResult -Criteria "Output NOTMATCHES 'System\.DiscoveryData'" Note that the undocumented NOTMATCHES operator (at least I did not find it on Microsoft’s Criteria Expression Syntax online document on MSDN; http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb437603.aspx) does away with the necessity of using RegEx’s negative lookahead assertions to find task results not containing a particular string. Sadly, this functionality does not appear to be supported by .NET’s RegEx implementation. Thanks again for your input. Larry

Good morning Lincoln, As you suggested, I really wanted to avoid querying the database directly, preferring a PowerShell solution to all others. A glance at your solution (which works BTW) has led me to a more efficient solution, which leverages Get-TaskResult’s –Criteria option, follows: Get-TaskResult -Criteria "Output MATCHES 'System\.DiscoveryData'" Or Get-TaskResult -Criteria "Output NOTMATCHES 'System\.DiscoveryData'" Note that the undocumented NOTMATCHES operator (at least I did not find it on Microsoft’s Criteria Expression Syntax online document on MSDN; http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb437603.aspx) does away with the necessity of using RegEx’s negative lookahead assertions to find task results not containing a particular string. Sadly, this functionality does not appear to be supported by .NET’s RegEx implementation. Thanks again for your input. Larry