Match strings stored in variables using PowerShell

Question

I am attempting to create a backup script that will move files that are older that 30 days, but I want to be able to exclude folders from the list

$a = "C:\\Temp\\Exclude\\test"
$b = "C:\\Temp\\Exclude"

if I run the following:

$a -match $b

Following PowerShell Basics: Conditional Operators -Match -Like -Contains & -In -NotIn:

$Guy ="Guy Thomas 1949"
$Guy -match "Th"

This returns true.

Shay Levy · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-01 17:03:28Z

10

I'd say use wilcards and the like operator, it can save you a lot of head aches:

$a -like "$b*"

The match operator is using regex pattern and the path is having regex special characters in it (the escape characeter). If you still want to use -match - make sure to escape the string:

$a -match [regex]::escape($b)

This will work but keep in mind that it can match in the middle of the string, you can add the '^' anchor to tell the regex engine to match from the begining of the string:

$a -match ("^"+[regex]::escape($b))

answered May 1, 2012 at 17:03

Shay Levy

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2 Comments

Chadit Over a year ago

the seconds and third one worked as long as I did $a[0] -match [regex]::escape($b[0]) and this now resolves as true $a[0] -match $b[0] which makes no sense to me, when I check the properties they all say system.string.... thanks

Shay Levy Over a year ago

You're indexing the string and get back the first character from each variable ('C').

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