Powershell - list found and not found strings during search

Question

I have a script that will search for strings or a list of strings and create a report. What I'm having trouble with is, I now need to know what strings were NOT found as well as those that were. Would anyone be able to offer an alteration to the script below to achieve this?

Thanks, -Ron

$searchWords=Get-Content "C:\Directory containing file\Text_To_Search_For.txt"

# List the starting(parrent) Directory here - the script will search thropugh every file and every sub-directory - starting fromn the one listed below  
Get-Childitem -Path "C:\Start my search here\" -Recurse | 
  Select-String -Pattern $searchWords | 

# the output will contain the [Found] word, the document it found it in and the line contents/line number containing the found string 
    Select Filename,Line,@{n='SearchWord';e={$_.Pattern}}, LineNumber

would help if you could provide what the expected result should look like. — Abraham Zinala
– Abraham Zinala, Commented Jun 23, 2022 at 20:46
What you are after is shown as examples in the PowerShell help files. There are many examples already here on Stackoverflow and all over the web. — postanote
– postanote, Commented Jun 23, 2022 at 20:58

mklement0 · Accepted Answer · 2022-06-23 22:17:47Z

1

Use the common -OutVariable (-ov) parameter to capture all matches output by Select-String, which allows you to analyze all matches after the fact, via Compare-Object:

# Note the `-OutVariable allMatches` part, which records Select-String's
# output objects in self-chosen variable $allMatches.
Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\Start my search here" -Recurse | 
  Select-String -OutVariable allMatches -Pattern $searchWords | 
  Select-Object Filename,Line,@{n='SearchWord';e={$_.Pattern}}, LineNumber

# Get the array of distinct words (patterns) that matched.
$wordsWithMatches = $allMatches.Pattern | Select-Object -Unique

# Now output those that *didn't* match.
Compare-Object $searchWords $wordsWithMatches -PassThru

answered Jun 23, 2022 at 22:17

mklement0

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3 Comments

user3166462 Over a year ago

Thank you! I just ran the script - perfect!

user3166462 Over a year ago

I know this sounds nitpicky as the script is performing well. Is it possible to have the output include a label? Such as "String not found ==> ". Instead of just outputting the string. Makes the report creation easier.

mklement0 Over a year ago

Glad to hear it helped, @user3166462. You could do something like

Compare-Object $searchWords $wordsWithMatches -PassThru | ForEach-Object {   [pscustomobject] @{ Result = 'String not found ==>'; String = $_ } }

, or you could construct custom objects whose properties match those of the Select-Object call, where you put String not found ==> in the Line property.

postanote · Accepted Answer · 2022-06-23 21:10:04Z

0

As per my comment above:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.utility/select-string?view=powershell-7.2

Get-Help -Name Select-String -Examples

A quick example from the guidance in the help files. You of course can tweak as you need to.

Clear-Host
Get-ChildItem -Path 'D:\Temp' | 
ForEach-Object {
    IF  (Select-String -Path $PSItem.FullName -Pattern 'test')
    {"Target word found in filename " + $PSItem.FullName}
    Else {'Word not found'}
}


# Results
<#
...
Word not found
Word not found
Word not found
Target word found in filename D:\Temp\UserData.csv
Word not found
Target word found in filename D:\Temp\UsersList.csv
Target word found in filename D:\Temp\Using Inner classes in C#.txt
Target word found in filename D:\Temp\VerboseLogFile.log
Word not found
Word not found
Word not found
...
#>

This can be tweaked to get the lines in the file where the pattern is found vs just the filename as well.

answered Jun 23, 2022 at 21:10

postanote

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2 Comments

user3166462 Over a year ago

Thank you! That link is now bookmarked!

postanote Over a year ago

No worries, and I see you've selected 'mklement0', which is solid, but as always in code, multiple ways of addressing a given task are always possible.

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