Powershell Get-Content with Where-Object

Question

I have a file like this:

line one email1
line two email1
line three email2
line four email1

If I want to extract only the lines that contain "email1", I do this:

$text = Get-Content -Path $path | Where-Object { $_ -like *email1* }

$text is now an array with 3 elements containing those lines, and I iterate through it like this:

for ($i = 0; $i -lt $text.Length; $i++)
{
#do stuff here
}

However, if I want to get the lines containing "email2".

$text = Get-Content -Path $path | Where-Object { $_ -like *email2* }

returns a string, rather than an array of one element. And when I iterate through it, it iterates through each char in the string.

How can I make it an array with one element rather than a string?

Roman Kuzmin · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-10 06:26:28Z

11

In order to get an array always, even with 1 (i.e. not string) or 0 (i.e. not $null) items, use the operator @():

$text = @(Get-Content -Path $path | Where-Object { $_ -like *email1* })

answered Apr 10, 2014 at 6:26

Roman Kuzmin

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David Klempfner · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-10 07:07:29Z

5

Worked it out.

I need to declare $text as type [String[]].

[String[]]$logText = Get-Content -Path $path | Where-Object { $_ -like *email1* }

edited Apr 10, 2014 at 7:07

answered Apr 10, 2014 at 3:52

David Klempfner

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1 Comment

Roman Kuzmin Over a year ago

Good one. See also "more generic" approach in my answer.

Kohlbrr · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-10 03:46:07Z

3

Instead of getting the Length method to treat a single element statement as an array, I think a better solution would be to use a foreach loop instead of a for loop to iterate:

foreach ($element in $text) {
    #stuff happens
}

will always parse through each element in $text, even if it's a single element.

answered Apr 10, 2014 at 3:46

Kohlbrr

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2 Comments

David Klempfner Over a year ago

my problem is that $text is sometimes a string, sometimes an array of String. Foreach on a string would just iterate through each char wouldn't it?

Kohlbrr Over a year ago

No - if you foreach a string the loop will only run once, since a string only contains a single element (the string itself). Character count has nothing to do with it.

Gruntzy · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-10 07:22:51Z

2

You also could use the Select-String Cmdlet, it worked for me even with only one result in the selection :

$text1 = Get-Content -Path $path | Select-String "email1"
$text1 | % { 
    # Do some stuff here
}

$text2 = Get-Content -Path $path | Select-String "email2"
$text2 | % { 
    # Do some stuff here
}

answered Apr 10, 2014 at 7:22

Gruntzy

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2 Comments

Duncan Over a year ago

That's because % is an alias for foreach so you're really just relying on what @Kohlbrr said: foreach or % will work on a single string or an array.

mbourgon Over a year ago

@gruntzy thanks - found where using select string with a regex would return the object array I needed!

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