Issue using [Regex]::Match in powershell

Question

I am trying to extract an URL from the Body of a Mail in PowerShell.

I am using following regex: (found on this site)

$regexURL = "@^(https?|ftp)://[^\s/$.?#].[^\s]*$@iS"

then I loop into a Mail folder and for each mail-item:

foreach ($Mail in $subfolder.items)  {    
    $a = [Regex]::Match($Mail.Subject, $regexURL).Groups[1].Value
    $b = [Regex]::Match($Mail.Body, $regexURL).Groups[1].Value
}

But even when Mail.Subject or Body contains a valid URL, $a and $b stay empty.

I am afraid I did not understand how is Match() working.

Thanx for any help on that question. Jerome

Please post an example of $Mail.Subject and what you expect $ato be. — Martin Brandl
– Martin Brandl, Commented Apr 13, 2016 at 16:42
What's the @ good for? Seems to be regex for another language. Try $regexURL = '(https?|ftp)://[^\s/$.?#].[^\s]*$'. iS modifiers is not required in PS/.NET AFAIK. — Frode F.
– Frode F., Commented Apr 13, 2016 at 16:48
$Mail.Subject could be "stockoverflow.com" for instance. $Mail.Body the same with empty lines at the end. '(https?|ftp)://[^\s/$.?#].[^\s]*$' is not working at all. For the time being only "(http[s]?|[s]?ftp[s]?)(:\/\/)([^\s,]+)" is a little bit (!) working and gives "http" back. — Jerome Köln
– Jerome Köln, Commented Apr 13, 2016 at 17:37

Frode F. · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-13 17:34:57Z

2

The regex is for another language (PHP probably), so you need to modify it to the .NET syntax. Powershell is case insensitive by default and S is an optimizing modifier for PHP I think, so we'll skip both of those. Try:

$regexURL = '(https?|ftp)://[^\s/$.?#].[^\s]*$'

Sample:

$regexURL = '(https?|ftp)://[^\s/$.?#].[^\s]*$'

#URL
[regex]::Match("test http://stackoverflow.com/questions/36604481/issue-using-regexmatch-in-powershell/36605171?noredirect=1#comment60807898_36605171", $regexURL).Groups[0].Value
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/36604481/issue-using-regexmatch-in-powershell/36605171?noredirect=1#comment60807898_36605171

#Protocol
[regex]::Match("test http://stackoverflow.com/questions/36604481/issue-using-regexmatch-in-powershell/36605171?noredirect=1#comment60807898_36605171", $regexURL).Groups[1].Value
http

edited Apr 13, 2016 at 17:34

answered Apr 13, 2016 at 17:09

Frode F.

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3 Comments

Lucas Trzesniewski Over a year ago

Yup, .NET doesn't use modifiers, so @^ is basically the equivalent of (?!) here.

Jerome Köln Over a year ago

I think you found the point but it is still not working. I tried now with: "(http[s]?|[s]?ftp[s]?)(:\/\/)([^\s,]+)" and it gives back "http" in $b. I have still to find the right regexUrl for PowerShell 5.

Frode F. Over a year ago

It does exactly what it should. You have http (protocol) in a capture group(). The match itself is in group 0. See sample in updated answer

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