Possible to combine .csv where-object filters?

Question

I'm trying to filter a .csv file based on a location column. The column has various location entries and I only need information from the rows that contain certain locations, that information then gets exported out to a separate .csv file. I can get it to work by searching the .csv file multiple times with each location filter, but I haven't had any luck when trying to combine it into 1 search.

What I have now is:

    $csv = Import-Csv "${filepath}\temp1.csv"
    $csv | Where-Object location -like "co*" | select EmployeeNumber | Export-Csv "${filepath}\disablelist.csv" -NoTypeInformation
    $csv | Where-Object location -like "cc*" | select EmployeeNumber | Export-Csv "${filepath}\disablelist.csv" -Append -NoTypeInformation
    $csv | Where-Object location -like "dc*" | select EmployeeNumber | Export-Csv "${filepath}\disablelist.csv" -Append -NoTypeInformation
    $csv | Where-Object location -like "mf*" | select EmployeeNumber | Export-Csv "${filepath}\disablelist.csv" -Append -NoTypeInformation

What I'd like to have is something like below. I don't get any errors with it, but all I get is a blank .csv file:

    $locations = "co*","cc*","dc*","mf*"
    $csv = Import-Csv "${filepath}\temp1.csv"
    $csv | Where-Object location -like $locations | select EmployeeNumber | Export-Csv "${filepath}\disablelist.csv" -NoTypeInformation

I've been lurking here for a while and I'm usually able to frankenstein a script together from what I find, but I can't seem to find anything on this. Thanks for your help.

Solution

You can replace multiple -like tests with a single -match test using an alternating regex:

$csv = Import-Csv "${filepath}\temp1.csv"
$csv | Where-Object {$_.location -match  '^(co|cc|dc|mf)'} |
   select EmployeeNumber | 
   Export-Csv "${filepath}\disablelist.csv" -NoTypeInformation

You can build that regex from a string array:

$locations = 'co','cc','dc','mf'
$LocationMatch = '^({0})' -f ($locations -join '|')

$csv = Import-Csv "${filepath}\temp1.csv"
$csv | Where-Object { $_.location -match  $LocationMatch } |
   select EmployeeNumber | 
   Export-Csv "${filepath}\disablelist.csv" -NoTypeInformation