Add text to every line in text file using PowerShell

Question

I'd like to add characters to the end of every line of text in a .txt document.

#Define Variables
$a = c:\foobar.txt
$b = get-content $a

#Define Functions
function append-text  
    {  
    foreach-Object  
        {  
        add "*"  
        }  
    }  

#Process Code
$b | append-text

Something like that. Essentially, load a given text file, add a "*" the the end of every single line of text in that text file, save and close.

Ed Schwehm · Accepted Answer · 2018-08-18 05:15:25Z

30

No function necessary. This would do it:

$b|foreach {$_ +  "*"}

edited Aug 18, 2018 at 5:15

Ed Schwehm

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answered Feb 10, 2011 at 2:03

Elroy Flynn

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2 Comments

Keith Hill Over a year ago

And if you're wrists are bothering you gc c:\foobar.txt | %{"$_*"}. That is using aliases heavily but I tend to use PowerShell for a lot of one-offs at the command line and the less I have to type the more my wrists don't hate me. :-)

Joshua Over a year ago

This definitely works, but I was hoping to keep it in function format so that I could call it again if necessary. You're probably right though, my goal on this script probably makes the need for a function unnecessary.

walid2mi · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-11 15:22:41Z

5

PS> (gc c:\foobar.txt) -replace '\S+$','$&*'

answered Feb 11, 2011 at 15:22

walid2mi

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Comments

mjolinor · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-10 02:01:12Z

4

Soemthing like this should work:

function append-text { 
  process{
   foreach-object {$_ + "*"}
    } 
  }

answered Feb 10, 2011 at 2:01

mjolinor

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6 Comments

Keith Hill Over a year ago

If you use a filter, you don't need the process block at all e.g. filter Append-Text {"$_*"}

Joshua Over a year ago

This works great! Is it possible add a redundancy check into this? Something that would check for the presence of "*", and if it is not at the end of a line, then add it?

Keith Hill Over a year ago

Sure, filter Append-Text {if ($_ -match '\*\s*$') {$_} else {"$_*"}}

mjolinor Over a year ago

Sometimes people are just looking for an example of how to do something, and present a simple example to use that's easier to solve by some other method but giving them that doesn't really answer the question they were asking. Other times the giving them the alternate method is the "right" answer. Sometimes I guess wrong.

Elroy Flynn Over a year ago

I think Keith's regex above '\s*$' is not correct. In any case instead of -match I would use -like, i.e. "$_ -notlike '*`'

|

Taryn · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-06 03:08:23Z

0

Simply took about 2 hours to work it out, had never used Powershell before, but here you go:

cls
#Define Functions
(gc g:\foobar.txt) -replace '\S+$','$& 1GB RAM 1x 1 GB Stick' | out-file "g:\ram 6400s.txt"

Change the file location. First file is the file you want to edit. The secound one is the output file.

edited Nov 6, 2012 at 3:08

Taryn

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answered Nov 24, 2011 at 11:22

Sam Skidmore

11

1 Comment

Elroy Flynn Over a year ago

I don't understand, why "\S" (non-whitespace)? I'd think ".+" would be the way to go.

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