Powershell. Remove Specific Line Numbers

Question

We have multiple text files in a folder that needs editing. The text files are Multi-Stage Azure Pipelines as code (.yaml) for Azure DevOps, that we need to update. We have specific line numbers that need to be cut, for example we need to cut out lines 54-68 from 30 files, but keep the rest of the code. An example of such lines:

- stage: DeployWebApps
  variables:
  - group: Environment1
  jobs:
  - job: DeployWebApps
    pool:
      vmImage: 'windows-latest'
    steps:
    - task: AzureFileCopy@3
      displayName: 'Copy ARM Template'
      inputs:
        SourcePath: 'DevOps\IaC\WebApps.json'
        azureSubscription: Development Subscription Service Connection'
        Destination: 'AzureBlob'
        storage: 'xxx'
        ContainerName: 'armtemplates'
        outputStorageUri: 'artifactsLocation'
        outputStorageContainerSasToken: 'artifactsLocationSasToken'
        sasTokenTimeOutInMinutes: '240'

We would like to use the approach I described because line 56:

  - group: Environment1

is different in each file while the rest of the lines are the same. Regex seem to be overkill that is more difficult to write than PowerShell for such case and doesn’t solve the problem of replacing lines in multiple files.

The best approach I found is in an answer here Powershell remove a range of lines from a text file

If the content you want is always on the first 4 lines you can just do this:

(Get-Content C:\file.txt)[0..3] | set-content C:\outfile.txt

This script removes everything except lines 1-4. How can I remove only lines 54-68 instead?

Mahmoud Moawad · Accepted Answer · 2022-01-04 12:04:29Z

3

This can be done as follow:

[string[]]$array = Get-Content -Path C:\file.txt

$array[0..52] + $array[68 ..($array.length -1)] | Set-Content C:\outfile.txt

edited Jan 4, 2022 at 12:04

answered Jan 4, 2022 at 11:32

Mahmoud Moawad

8037 silver badges16 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

4 Comments

Jeff Zeitlin Over a year ago

You may need to make this ($array.length -1).

Mahmoud Moawad Over a year ago

yes you are right, although it works without the -1 but as an accurate answer i shoud make the lenght -1, i modified it, thanks.

AdminOfThings Over a year ago

@MahmoudMoawad It works without length-1 because strict mode is off. You never know what mode the user's environment may be.

Mahmoud Moawad Over a year ago

@AdminOfThings Thanks for pointing this out, I didn't knew that.

AdminOfThings · Accepted Answer · 2022-01-04 13:32:58Z

1

In PowerShell Core (v7+), Select-Object has a -SkipIndex parameter that allows skipping multiple lines using the pipeline.

Get-Content -Path file.txt | Select-Object -SkipIndex (53..67) |
    Set-Content output.txt

Note that -SkipIndex skips the actual index number (starts at 0) rather than the number of lines as required by -Skip.

answered Jan 4, 2022 at 13:32

AdminOfThings

25.2k4 gold badges22 silver badges30 bronze badges

Comments

js2010 · Accepted Answer · 2022-01-04 15:32:59Z

0

Here's an odd solution that uses the hidden readcount property returned by get-content.

# get-content c:\file.txt | select *
get-content c:\file.txt | where readcount -notin (54..68) | 
  set-content c:\outfile.txt

edited Jan 4, 2022 at 15:32

answered Jan 4, 2022 at 15:27

js2010

28.3k6 gold badges82 silver badges88 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Powershell. Remove Specific Line Numbers

3 Answers 3

4 Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

4 Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related