How to replace a string in powershell?

Question

I need to extricate the file extension from the file paths. For Eg: I have a file path like:

\\Test\data\data.dll

How to remove the data.dll from the file path, so that I get only

\\Test\data\

as the output.

I tried using the wild character - *. but that didn't work.

Thanks!

Frode F. · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-11 12:56:38Z

4

In your case there is a special cmdlet that by default removes the file or folder at the end. Try:

$path =  \\test\data\data.dll
#Get folderpath    
Split-Path $path
#Get filename only (thanks to Christian for tip)
Split-Path $path -Leaf

edited Jan 11, 2013 at 12:56

answered Jan 11, 2013 at 12:04

Frode F.

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5 Comments

ashish g Over a year ago

Graimer: What if I want to do it vise versa.. i.e, How do I get only the data.dll and not the path before that??

Frode F. Over a year ago

Test the updated answer. If it doesn't work, tell me and I'll fix it in 30min when I get a computer :)

CB. Over a year ago

@ashishg For just the file name: Split-Path \\test\data\data.dll -Leaf

Frode F. Over a year ago

there, thanks for tip Christian. Cleaned up answer to include it now :)

ashish g Over a year ago

Ya it works.. Thanks Graimer:) Graimer just refering to previous question could you tell me how wud I read the DLLs and PDBs if I had multiple sorces. For Eg: .\Projects\, .\Data\ etc

Stephen Mills · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-11 14:24:38Z

0

Here's 2 different ways of doing it. One is to use Split-Path. The other is to use -replace with regular expressions. They both work great in PowerShell V3, but Split-Path doesn't work in V2 if the path has a drive letter in it, but your system doesn't have that drive letter.

#Get Folder
Split-Path '\\test\data\data.dll'
'\\test\data\data.dll' -replace '\\[^\\]+$'

#Get File 
Split-Path '\\test\data\data.dll' -Leaf
'\\test\data\data.dll' -replace '^\\.*\\'

answered Jan 11, 2013 at 14:24

Stephen Mills

1

2 Comments

Stephen Mills Over a year ago

Make sure you use a drive letter you don't have on your system, ie J:. You can then do the following to see the problem. Split-Path 'J:\data\data.dll' You'll get the error message: "Cannot find drive. A drive with the name 'J' does not exist."I reported this to them a long time ago on connect.microsoft.com, but it wasn't fixed until V3. link

CB. Over a year ago

thanks for the info. You should add this in your answer. Not many people need to split-path for a non existing drive ;)

CB. · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-11 15:43:39Z

0

Just to add my 2 cents for a workaround for the issue told by @StephenMills in his answer:

PS C:\ps> ( [system.io.fileinfo]"J:\data\data.dll" ).FullName
J:\data\data.dll
PS C:\ps> ( [system.io.fileinfo]"J:\data\data.dll" ).BaseName
data
PS C:\ps> ( [system.io.fileinfo]"J:\data\data.dll" ).name
data.dll
PS C:\ps> ( [system.io.fileinfo]"J:\data\data.dll" ).DirectoryName
J:\data

answered Jan 11, 2013 at 15:43

CB.

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