Edit text file content in ForEach-Object loop

Question

I'm trying to edit a text file from PowerHhell, following the refresh of a directory.

Trying to Get-Content from the target location where the source dbconnecthost is what we're searching for. We then want to replace with the target information and Set-Content. These variables are being pulled from another .ps1 file.

The below is what I'm attempting to use.

function ReplaceDBhost {
    Get-Content ("$TargetLocation\Data\config.txt") | Foreach-Object {
        $_ -replace ('^dbconnecthost=' + '$SourceDBConnectHost'), ('dbconnecthost=' + '$TargetDBConnectHost' )
    } | Set-Content  ("$TargetLocation\Data\config.txt")
}

The problem is, I'm not getting any changes when I run this. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Maximilian Burszley · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-18 13:29:56Z

4

When you use single-quotes, that's called a string literal and does not support variable expansion. To correct this, you need to use double-quotes (or no quotes at all if your variable is a string and you're appending with +):

(Get-Content -Path "$TargetLocation\Data\config.txt") |
    ForEach-Object {
        $_ -replace "^dbconnecthost=$SourceDBConnectHost", "dbconnecthost=$TargetDBConnectHost"
    } |
    Set-Content -Path "$TargetLocation\Data\config.txt"

Although your regex can be improved using a lookaround:

"(?<=^dbconnecthost=)$SourceDBConnectHost", $TargetDBConnectHost

Shortened:

$path = @{Path = "$TargetLocation\Data\config.txt"}
$pattern = "(?<=^dbconnecthost=)$SourceDBConnectHost"
(Get-Content @path) -replace $pattern, $TargetDBConnectHost | Set-Content @path

edited Sep 18, 2018 at 13:29

answered Sep 17, 2018 at 22:55

Maximilian Burszley

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1 Comment

Maximilian Burszley Over a year ago

@LotPings good catch - or use -Raw with the multi-line regex option.

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