Search for strings from array in text file

Question

I want to search a textfile for more than one string. If i find at least 1 string ( i repeat , i only need one string to be found, not all of them ) i want the program to stop and create a file in which i will find the text : "found" This is my code that doesn't work properly :

$f = 'C:\users\datboi\desktop\dump.dmp'

$text = 'found'

$array = "_command",".command","-
command","!command","+command","^command",":command","]command","[command","#command","*command","$command","&command","@command","%command","=command","/command","\command","command!","command@","command#","command$","command%","command^","command&","command*","command-","command+","command=","command\","command/","command_","command.","command:"

$len    = 9
$offset = 8

$data = [IO.File]::ReadAllBytes($f)


for ($i=0; $i -lt $data.Count - $offset; $i++) {
$slice = $data[$i..($i+$offset)]
$sloc = [char[]]$slice

  if ($array.Contains($sloc)){
    $text > 'command.log'
    break 
}
}

When i say it doesn t work properly i mean : it runs, no errors, but even if the file contains at least one of the strings from the array, it doesn't create the file i want .

TheMadTechnician · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-05 22:08:59Z

1

This is literally what the Select-String cmdlet was created for. You can use a Regular Expression to simplify your search. For the RegEx I would use:

[_\.-!\+\^:]\[\#\*\$&@%=/\\]command|command[_\.-!\+\^:\#\*\$&@%=/\\]

That comes down to any of the characters in the [] brackets followed by the word 'command', or the word 'command' followed by any of the characters in the [] brackets. Then just pipe that to a ForEach-Object loop that outputs to your file and breaks.

Select-String -Path $f -Pattern '[_\.-!\+\^:]\[\#\*\$&@%=/\\]command|command[_\.-!\+\^:\#\*\$&@%=/\\]' | ForEach{
    $text > 'command.log'
    break
}

answered Feb 5, 2018 at 22:08

TheMadTechnician

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1 Comment

wkup Over a year ago

This works perfectly but it takes a lot of time for big files. Is there a faster method ?

Bill_Stewart · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-05 22:20:09Z

1

First, I would recommend using a regular expression as you can greatly shorten your code.

Second, PowerShell is good at pattern matching.

Example:

$symbolList = '_\-:!\.\[\]@\*\/\\&#%\^\+=\$'
$pattern = '([{0}]command)|(command[{0}])' -f $symbolList
$found = Select-String $pattern "inputfile.txt" -Quiet
$found

The $symbolList variable is a regular expression pattern containing a list of characters you want to find either before or after the word "command" in your search string.

The $pattern variable uses $symbolList to create the pattern.

The $found variable will be $true if the pattern is found in the file.

answered Feb 5, 2018 at 22:20

Bill_Stewart

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2 Comments

wkup Over a year ago

This works perfectly but it takes a lot of time for big files. Is there a faster method ?

Bill_Stewart Over a year ago

Can you be more specific?

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