Search and Replace using illegal characters Powershell

Question

I'm trying to accomplish a search and replace in multiple files. See sample code below. But when I use the characters [] , :: , / it replaces multiple times all over the place. Is there a way around this?

PS C:"Some_Path"> $newFiles = Get-ChildItem . *.par -rec 
foreach ($file in $newFiles)
{(Get-Content $file.PSPath) | Foreach-Object { $_ -replace "[text]", " /Text/Text_Data1::[404PC001]" } | Set-Content $file.PSPath }

Thanks

.par is a text file

Please post sample text and what you want to find and replace. — Bill_Stewart, Apr 03 '18 at 21:57

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 03 '18 at 22:01

0

The -replace operator in PowerShell uses Regular Expressions. You need to quote characters that are special in these expressions. To do this in your example, add '\' before the '[' and ']' characters as in:

$_ -replace "\[text\]", " /Text/Text_Data1::[404PC001]"

answered Apr 03 '18 at 22:01

Bruce Payette

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Or make PowerShell do it... `$_ -replace [regex]::escape("[text]")," /Text/Text_Data1::[404PC001]"` – TheMadTechnician Apr 03 '18 at 23:18

Search and Replace using illegal characters Powershell

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