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Bulk Operations

Real-world administration often means performing the same action on hundreds or thousands of items. PowerShell excels at bulk operations by combining CSV files, loops, and error handling.

Reading Input from CSV

Use Import-Csv to load a structured data file. Each row becomes a PowerShell object, and column headers become property names:

powershell

$users = Import-Csv -Path "C:\Data\new-users.csv"
$users[0].DisplayName   # Access the first user's DisplayName column

A typical CSV for user creation might look like:

code

DisplayName,UserPrincipalName,Department,MailNickname
Pat Johnson,pat@contoso.com,Engineering,pat
Sam Lee,sam@contoso.com,Sales,sam

Processing with ForEach

Loop through each row and execute a command:

powershell

$users = Import-Csv -Path "C:\Data\new-users.csv"

foreach ($user in $users) {
    $passwordProfile = @{
        Password = "TempP@ss123!"
        ForceChangePasswordNextSignIn = $true
    }
    New-MgUser -DisplayName $user.DisplayName `
        -UserPrincipalName $user.UserPrincipalName `
        -MailNickname $user.MailNickname `
        -Department $user.Department `
        -AccountEnabled:$true `
        -PasswordProfile $passwordProfile
}

Adding Items to SharePoint Lists in Bulk

The same pattern works for populating SharePoint lists:

powershell

$items = Import-Csv -Path "C:\Data\inventory.csv"

foreach ($item in $items) {
    Add-PnPListItem -List "Inventory" -Values @{
        Title    = $item.ProductName
        SKU      = $item.SKU
        Quantity = [int]$item.Quantity
    }
}

Error Handling in Bulk Operations

Wrap each iteration in try/catch so one failure does not stop the entire batch:

powershell

foreach ($user in $users) {
    try {
        New-MgUser -DisplayName $user.DisplayName `
            -UserPrincipalName $user.UserPrincipalName `
            -AccountEnabled:$true -MailNickname $user.MailNickname `
            -PasswordProfile $passwordProfile
        Write-Host "Created: $($user.DisplayName)" -ForegroundColor Green
    }
    catch {
        Write-Warning "Failed: $($user.DisplayName) - $_"
    }
}

Key Concept: Always use try/catch inside bulk loops. Without it, a single bad row (duplicate account, invalid email) will abort the entire operation. Logging successes and failures helps you track what happened.

Tracking Progress

For large batches, Write-Progress gives users a visual status bar:

powershell

$total = $users.Count
for ($i = 0; $i -lt $total; $i++) {
    Write-Progress -Activity "Creating users" `
        -Status "$($i+1) of $total" `
        -PercentComplete (($i / $total) * 100)

    # ... create user logic here ...
}
Write-Progress -Activity "Creating users" -Completed

Exercises

0/4 completed

Write the command to import a CSV file located at 'C:\Data\users.csv' and store it in a variable called $users.

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