Searching for literal string with Select-String and extracting part of string

Question

The value of $DeviceID is : "PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_9D3A&SUBSYS_225617AA&REV_21\3&11583659&1&B0"

I'm trying to search for that string in .INF files with "Select-String" :

 Select-String -Path C:\file.inf -Pattern "$DeviceID"

But it won't take the string as is, it's having a problem with the "\V":

Select-String : La chaîne PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_9D3A&SUBSYS_225617AA&REV_21\
3&11583659&1&B0 n’est pas une expression régulière valide: analyse de
"PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_9D3A&SUBSYS_225617AA&REV_21\3&11583659&1&B0" - Séquence
d'échappement \V non reconnue.
Au caractère Ligne:15 : 5
+     Select-String -Path $($_.FullName) -pattern "$($erreur.DeviceID)"
+     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidArgument : (:) [Select-String], ArgumentException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvalidRegex,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.SelectStringCommand

Sorry for the french but it basically says "String is not a valid regex. Escape sequence \V not recognized".

Mathias R. Jessen · Accepted Answer · 2019-05-29 11:55:06Z

1

Select-String, by default, uses the .NET regex engine. To do simple string matching, use the -SimpleMatch switch parameter:

Select-String -Path C:\file.inf -pattern "$DeviceID" -SimpleMatch

answered May 29, 2019 at 11:55

Mathias R. Jessen

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2 Comments

Rakha Over a year ago

Thanks, forgot about that switch! Added a further question about regex if you can chime in on that too.

Mathias R. Jessen Over a year ago

@Rakha $null = $id -match "VEN_\w{4}&DEV_\w{4}" (for future reference, please post a new question rather than updating the existing question if you have more/new/followup/different questions)

Jay Adams · Accepted Answer · 2019-05-29 11:59:26Z

1

PowerShell is trying to do a regular expression match. Add the -SimpleMatch switch to look for the literal string in $DeviceID, without regex.

Select-String -Path C:\file.inf -Pattern $DeviceID -SimpleMatch

answered May 29, 2019 at 11:59

Jay Adams

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1 Comment

Rakha Over a year ago

Thanks, forgot about that switch! Added a further question about regex if you can chime in on that too.

postanote · Accepted Answer · 2019-05-30 02:30:15Z

I see you already have your answer but there is another switch that will do this as well.

For comparison...

-list

select-string -path "$TargeUNC\*.ps1" -Pattern 'Get-WmiObject' -list | 
Select-Object -First 3

# Results

2018-01-15 Enable the Disk Cleanup tool on Windows Server.ps1:45:$wmiOS = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_OperatingSystem
3D_chart.ps1:1:get-wmiobject win32_perfformatteddata_perfdisk_logicaldisk
7 cmdlet Hyper-V Tips.ps1:15:$vm = Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\virtualization\v2 -Class

-vs -SimpleMatch

select-string -path "$TargeUNC\*.ps1" -Pattern 'Get-WmiObject' -SimpleMatch | 
Select-Object -First 3

# Results

2018-01-15 Enable the Disk Cleanup tool on Windows Server.ps1:45:$wmiOS = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_OperatingSystem
3D_chart.ps1:1:get-wmiobject win32_perfformatteddata_perfdisk_logicaldisk
7 cmdlet Hyper-V Tips.ps1:15:$vm = Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\virtualization\v2 -Class

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