CODEWITHSUNDEEP
powershellbatch-filecmd
Shaun Haywood
Shaun Haywood

Reputation: 31

Batch Replace Multiple Texts in a file

I need to replace multiple different instances of text in a file using a .bat.

(Note: SQF is just a server config file, Encoding is not an issue)

I have tried:

powershell -Command "(gc Structures.sqf) -replace 'WOOD_WALL', 'CINDERBLOCK_WALL' | Out-File BrickMe.sqf"

powershell -Command "(gc Structures.sqf) -replace 'e614ee17-4467-4d51-a3f2-d4faa61de89e', 'a59f5b71-2b9a-45a2-85bb-ec29a47f78aa' | Out-File BrickMe.sqf"

powershell -Command "(gc Structures.sqf) -replace 'Wood Wall', 'Cinderblock Wall' | Out-File BrickMe.sqf"

But it only performs the last command. Eg. WOOD_WALL remains.

And

sed -e "s/WOOD_WALL/CINDERBLOCK_WALL/" -e "s/Wood Wall/Cinderblock Wall/" <Structures.sqf>BrickMe.sqf

Just creates an empty file called BrickMe.sqf

I have also tried a VBScript to no avail. I would rather keep it able to run on any Windows machine provided the code can handle the file size but I don't know how to replace multiple instances of different text without repeating the whole command and taking a long time.

I have also looked at this http://www.dostips.com/?t=batch.findandreplace But was unsure of where to put my "WOOD_WALL" instances and my file names.

I have found heaps of results on google for replacing 1 piece of text in multiple files but hardly anything on replacing multiple texts in 1 file.

The Story:
I am running an Arma 3 server and have built a wooden admin base in game that I wish to convert to a cinderblock base. I have done this before but only manually by replacing the Instance Name, Instance_ID and Entity Name. I would like to do it using a batch file if possible and upload it to http://www.exilemod.com to help other admins. The files are usually no larger then 15 Megabytes in size.

I'm pretty awesome with Windows batch files but am new to PowerShell.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 2302

Answers (1)

user6811411
user6811411

Reputation:

It's no wonder that your actions are not successfull.

You always take the original input file, perform actions and save to the same output file this way overwriting the previous action.

For better understanding the PowerShell part broken up:

(gc Structures.sqf) -replace 'WOOD_WALL', 'CINDERBLOCK_WALL' `
                    -replace 'e614ee17-4467-4d51-a3f2-d4faa61de89e', 
                             'a59f5b71-2b9a-45a2-85bb-ec29a47f78aa' `
                    -replace 'Wood Wall', 'Cinderblock Wall' | 
 Out-File BrickMe.sqf

As the -replace operator is RegEx based the 1st and 3rd replace can be joined by:

  • placing a character class [_ ] underscore or space inside
  • a capture group ([_ ]) and
  • using the capture group in the replacement string $1
(gc Structures.sqf) -replace 'WOOD([_ ])WALL', 'CINDERBLOCK$1WALL' `
                    -replace 'e614ee17-4467-4d51-a3f2-d4faa61de89e', 
                             'a59f5b71-2b9a-45a2-85bb-ec29a47f78aa' | 
Out-File BrickMe.sqf

All this wrapped again in a cmd line:

powershell -NoProfile -Command "(gc Structures.sqf) -replace 'WOOD([_ ])WALL', 'CINDERBLOCK$1WALL' -replace 'e614ee17-4467-4d51-a3f2-d4faa61de89e','a59f5b71-2b9a-45a2-85bb-ec29a47f78aa'|Out-File BrickMe.sqf"

Upvotes: 4

Related Questions