Powershell Get-Content -> Parameter "-replace"

Question

Hi!

Is the "-replace" Parameter bounded to the cmdlet "Get-Content"? through googling i found it in many different contexts
Why is the -replace Parameter not shown in the official Documentation? Get-Content Microsoft

Issue:

The text apporaches like this:

olor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy LoremIpsum-648648sdfsd

I want to replace the substring via Regex from "LoremIpsum-xxx" to "Loremipsum"

This is my first Try:

(Get-Content "C:\File.cmd") -replace "[regex]::matches("LoremIpsum-(.*?)")" | Out-File -encoding ASCII C:\File.cmd

It's not a parameter for Get-Content it's actually a comparison operator https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/about/about_comparison_operators?view=powershell-7.2#replacement-with-regular-expressions — Olaf
– Olaf, Commented Apr 26, 2022 at 9:30

Wiktor Stribiżew · Accepted Answer · 2022-04-26 09:34:15Z

4

-replace is not a Get-Content parameter, it is an operator that allows to use a regular expression to find a specified pattern and then either remove or replace the matched text with another.

In your case, you can use

(Get-Content "C:\File.cmd") -replace '(?<=\bLoremIpsum)-\w+' | Out-File -encoding ASCII C:\File.cmd

The (?<=\bLoremIpsum)-\w+ regex matches a hyphen (-) and one or more word chars (\w+) that are immediately preceded with a LoremIpsum as a whole word (\b is a word boundary).

Note you may replace \w+ with \S+ if you want to remove any one or more non-whitespace chars after LoremIpsum.

Alternatively, you can use

(Get-Content "C:\File.cmd") -replace '\b(LoremIpsum)-\w+', '$1' | Out-File -encoding ASCII C:\File.cmd

Here, LoremIpsum is captured into a capturing group (with ID 1 since it is the first capturing group in the regex), and the replacement is now $1, the replacement backreference referring to Group 1 value.

See the regex demo #1 and this regex demo.

edited Apr 26, 2022 at 9:34

answered Apr 26, 2022 at 9:30

Wiktor Stribiżew

631k41 gold badges502 silver badges632 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

6 Comments

NoErrorNoCry Over a year ago

Thanks for your answer sir - Why cant i simply google with keywords "powershell","-replace" and get the satisfying results? how do i approach a satisfying google search? @Wiktor Stribiżew

Wiktor Stribiżew Over a year ago

@NoErrorNoCry I used powershell replace regex documentation and the top result brought me to the necessary page.

zett42 Over a year ago

@NoErrorNoCry By placing "-" in front of a keyword, it actually excludes this keyword from search! If you want to search for it literally, surround it in double quotation marks. Try this: powershell "-replace"

NoErrorNoCry Over a year ago

Got another problem: Sometimes the "-"-Hyphen emerges a few times: LoremIpsum-648648sdfsd-skldfjsdo54-545dfd6-sldfj the pattern '(?<=\bLoremIpsum)-\w+' produces following output: LoremIpsum-skldfjsdo54-545dfd6-sldfj but i want to remove everything

Wiktor Stribiżew Over a year ago

@NoErrorNoCry No problem, see my "Note you may replace \w+ with \S+ if you want to remove any one or more non-whitespace chars after LoremIpsum." Use -replace '(?<=\bLoremIpsum)-\S+'. Right, - excludes a word from search in Google search, hence, I did not use - before replace in my Google search.

|

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Powershell Get-Content -> Parameter "-replace"

Issue:

1 Answer 1

6 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Issue:

1 Answer 1

6 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related