CODEWITHSUNDEEP
powershell
script0207
script0207

Reputation: 385

Powershell Delete first word only of a line

My Text File has below content:

author   : abc  
Revision : 123  
Date     : 9/4/2018 11.15.50 AM  
Path     : testabc  
Message  : Req ID:abcd1234  
           Rev:1.0.0  
           Status:something   
           Notes:somethingabc  
Path : D:\temp

I want this content to look like this below: 

author   : abc  
Revision : 123  
Date     : 9/4/2018 11.15.50 AM  
Path     : testabc  
Req ID:abcd1234  
Rev:1.0.0  
Status:something   
Notes:somethingabc  
Path : D:\temp

I need to delete the word "Message :" only (in the 5th line) and remove the spaces for the next three lines.

I have tried below: 

$content = Get-Content "D:\test.txt"
$content | Foreach {$_.TrimStart('Message  : ')} |  Foreach {$_.TrimStart()} | Set-Content "D:\test.txt"

Upvotes: 1

Views: 2448

Answers (2)

user6811411
user6811411

Reputation:

The IMO easiest way is the RegEx based -Replace operator.

(Get-Content .\test.txt ) -replace "^(Message\s+:\s+|\s+)"

See the RegEx working here with an explanation

The RE anchors at line begin ^ and has an alternate it matches either

  • Message\s+:\s+ literal Message followed by at least one space a colon and at least one space
    Or |

  • just spaces or more precise any whitespace character (equal to [\r\n\t\f\v ])

And replaces them with nothing ,"" which hasn't to be expressed but is implied.

Upvotes: 3

Tomalak
Tomalak

Reputation: 338208

You can use the -replace operator, like this

$lines = Get-Content "D:\test.txt"
$lines -replace "Message  : " -replace "^\s+" | Set-Content "D:\test.txt"

Notes:

  • -replace "A","B" replaces A with B. If you omit B, it effectively removes A (i.e. replaces it with nothing).
  • -replace can be chained
  • -replace works with regular expressions, ^\s+ means "multiple spaces at the start of the line"
  • Many Powershell operators can work with arrays. There is no need to use ForEach here - Get-Content gives you an array of lines, -replace runs for every line.

Upvotes: 4

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