Modifying text

Richard Siddaway Profile: Richard Siddaway

I needed to modify some text somewhere in a file. The file looks like this

##  start file
This is some text.

I want to change something.

But not this.
##  end file

I was playing around with various options.  The simplest I found was this:

£> $txt = Get-Content .\test.txt
£> $txt = $txt.Replace(“I want”, “I need”)
£> Set-Content -Value $txt -Path C:\Test\test.txt
£> Get-Content .\test.txt
##  start file
This is some text.

I need to change something.

But not this.
##  end file

You could simplify to

£> $txt = (Get-Content .\test.txt).Replace(“I want”, “I need”)
£> Set-Content -Value $txt -Path C:\Test\test.txt -PassThru

##  start file
This is some text.

I need to change something.

But not this.
##  end file

The passthru parameter displays the file contents you’ve set.

Or if you are a fan of convoluted one liners

£> Set-Content -Value ((Get-Content .\test.txt).Replace(“I want”, “I need”)) -Path C:\Test\test.txt -PassThru
##  start file
This is some text.

I need to change something.

But not this.
##  end file

If you take this approach just make sure your text is uniquely identified otherwise you may change more than you thought.

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