CODEWITHSUNDEEP
powershell
lara400
lara400

Reputation: 4736

Replace text failing

Been trying various combinations but I just cannot replace the text I want below - I keep on getting an error. I have a feeling it does not like the "\" or even the "$" I have added but cannot see what is wrong - any help would be appreciated. All I want to do is to replace some text to something else.

PS C:\> $f = "C:\LocalGAR\WIN\Comp\register\x86_v1.0"

PS C:\> $f -replace ('C:\LocalGAR','\\comp.gci.tk.com\files$')
The regular expression pattern C:\LocalGAR is not valid.
At line:1 char:1
+ $f -replace ('C:\LocalGAR','\\comp.gci.tk.com\files$')
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (C:\LocalGAR:String) [], RuntimeException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvalidRegularExpression

Upvotes: 1

Views: 280

Answers (3)

Thom
Thom

Reputation: 118

Have you tried calling 'replace' as a method like so:

$f.replace('C:\LocalGAR','\\comp.gci.tk.com\files$')

This doesn't throw an error for me where your line does. EDIT (from Mathias R. Jessen): Yes it is also good to note that "-replace" is completely different to ".replace"

Upvotes: 2

TessellatingHeckler
TessellatingHeckler

Reputation: 29048

PowerShell's -replace operator uses regular expressions for pattern matching, and they use backslash \ to identify regular expression groups - e.g. \s is "any whitespace character (spaces, tabs)".

It's trying to match \L to a regular expression command, and can't find it, and is throwing an error.

The replace text for -replace is a normal string, not a regex, so the $ is fine in there.

(The two options, as given by the other answers, are to use the $string.replace() method which does literal string replacement, or to escape the special characters in the regex so they are not commands - either by hand or with [regex]::escape()).

Upvotes: 1

Lieven Keersmaekers
Lieven Keersmaekers

Reputation: 58491

You have to escape the slashes in your search pattern

manually escaped

$f -replace ('C:\\LocalGAR','\\comp.gci.tk.com\files$')

or the safer automatic escaped string

$f -replace ([Regex]::Escape('C:\LocalGAR'),'\\comp.gci.tk.com\files$')

returns 

\\comp.gci.tk.com\files$\WIN\Comp\register\x86_v1.0

Upvotes: 2

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