How to use operator '-replace' in PowerShell to replace strings of texts with special characters and replace successfully

Question

I have a script where I am basically doing a find and replace on several strings of text. The first couple of strings work, but when I do the account keys, they do not. How can I fix this problem?

Here is the script:

Get-ChildItem "[FILEPATH]" -recurse |
    Foreach-Object {
        $c = ($_ | Get-Content)
        $c = $c -replace 'abt7d9epp4','w2svuzf54f'
        $c = $c -replace 'AccountName=adtestnego','AccountName=zadtestnego'
        $c = $c -replace 'AccountKey=eKkij32jGEIYIEqAR5RjkKgf4OTiMO6SAyF68HsR/Zd/KXoKvSdjlUiiWyVV2+OUFOrVsd7jrzhldJPmfBBpQA==','DdOegAhDmLdsou6Ms6nPtP37bdw6EcXucuT47lf9kfClA6PjGTe3CfN+WVBJNWzqcQpWtZf10tgFhKrnN48lXA=='
        [IO.File]::WriteAllText($_.FullName, ($c -join "`r`n"))
    }

In what way does it "not work"? If you can be a bit more specific, folks might be able to better answer your question. — Keith Hill
– Keith Hill, Commented Nov 5, 2013 at 17:45

Adil Hindistan · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-10 18:00:47Z

57

'-replace' does a regex search and you have special characters in that last one (like +) So you might use the non-regex replace version like this:

$c = $c.replace('AccountKey=eKkij32jGEIYIEqAR5RjkKgf4OTiMO6SAyF68HsR/Zd/KXoKvSdjlUiiWyVV2+OUFOrVsd7jrzhldJPmfBBpQA==','DdOegAhDmLdsou6Ms6nPtP37bdw6EcXucuT47lf9kfClA6PjGTe3CfN+WVBJNWzqcQpWtZf10tgFhKrnN48lXA==')

edited Mar 10, 2014 at 18:00

answered Nov 5, 2013 at 17:26

Adil Hindistan

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Comments

mjolinor · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-05 18:50:48Z

If you've got V3, you can take advantage of auto-enumeration, the -Raw switch in Get-Content, and some of the new line contiunation syntax to simply it to this, using the string .replace() method instead of the -replace operator:

(Get-ChildItem "[FILEPATH]" -recurse).FullName |
  Foreach-Object {
   (Get-Content $_ -Raw).
     Replace('abt7d9epp4','w2svuzf54f').
     Replace('AccountName=adtestnego','AccountName=zadtestnego').
     Replace('AccountKey=eKkij32jGEIYIEqAR5RjkKgf4OTiMO6SAyF68HsR/Zd/KXoKvSdjlUiiWyVV2+OUFOrVsd7jrzhldJPmfBBpQA==','AccountKey=DdOegAhDmLdsou6Ms6nPtP37bdw6EcXucuT47lf9kfClA6PjGTe3CfN+WVBJNWzqcQpWtZf10tgFhKrnN48lXA==') |
   Set-Content $_
  }

Using the .replace() method uses literal strings for the replaced text argument (not regex), so you don't need to worry about escaping regex metacharacters in the text-to-replace argument.

Anthony Neace · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-05 16:46:46Z

5

In your example, you prepended your source string with AccountKey= but not your target string.

$c = $c -replace 'AccountKey=eKkij32jGEIYIEqAR5RjkKgf4OTiMO6SAyF68HsR/Zd/KXoKvSdjlUiiWyVV2+OUFOrVsd7jrzhldJPmfBBpQA==','AccountKey=DdOegAhDmLdsou6Ms6nPtP37bdw6EcXucuT47lf9kfClA6PjGTe3CfN+WVBJNWzqcQpWtZf10tgFhKrnN48lXA=='

By not including that in the target string, the resulting string will remove AccountKey= instead of replacing it. You correctly do this with the AccountName= example, which seems to support this conclusion since it is not giving you any problems. If you really mean to have that prepended, then this may resolve your issue.

answered Nov 5, 2013 at 16:46

Anthony Neace

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