find multi-line string in text file using powershell

Question

I'm trying to find the multi line string in the text file using below script but it's not working as expected.

$tns= "MYSID=
  (DESCRIPTION =
    (ADDRESS_LIST =
      (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = mydnshostname)(PORT = 1111))
    )
    (CONNECT_DATA =
      (SERVICE_NAME = MYSID)
    )
  )"

$SEL = Select-String -Path T:\Test\search.txt -Pattern $tns


if ($SEL -ne $null)
{
    Write-Host "Contains String"
}
else
{
    Write-Host "Not Contains String"
}

when you use Select-String, the -Pattern is a regex pattern. your pattern contains multiple special regex chars [() for instance]. try using -SimpleMatch to get a non-regex pattern match. — Lee_Dailey
– Lee_Dailey, Commented Oct 3, 2020 at 14:03
please post a realistic sample of the input file you are working with, AND the exact info you want from it. i doubt that you really want that whole multiline string. i suspect you can use a simpler pattern to get the actual info you want. — Lee_Dailey
– Lee_Dailey, Commented Oct 3, 2020 at 15:01

js2010 · Accepted Answer · 2022-07-16 16:53:34Z

1

It depends on the file's line endings. In windows, lines ending in \r\n, one way is this. With a match, it will return the whole file.

echo one '(two)' three four five | set-content file.txt
get-content -raw file.txt | select-string '\(two\)\r\nthree\r\nfour'

one
(two)
three
four
five

Or using regex single line mode (?s) where a . can match a line ending. It should work with unix line endings too \n . Without the pipe, select-string can't seem to match multiple lines (-path parameter).

get-content -raw file.txt | select-string '(?s)\(two\).*three.*four'

edited Jul 16, 2022 at 16:53

answered Oct 3, 2020 at 19:14

js2010

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