String

String Interpolation

Interpolated string should quote with ".

Use $ to interpolate:

• variable
• expression
• member accessing

"Profile Path: $Profile" # variable
"1 + 1 = $(1 + 1)" # expression

# functionaly identical
"cwd: $($pwd.Path)" # Member accessing
"cwd: $pwd"

"$(@(1, 2, 3)[0])"

NOTE

$() is being called SubExpression Operator in PowerShell.

Verbatim String

Verbatim string should quote with '. Can contains new lines and

'
    It''s a verbatim string! 
    and this is a new line!
'

NOTE

Verbatim string does not allow interpolation in PowerShell which differs from C#.

Raw String

NOTE

Raw string is being called Here String in PowerShell.

Here String typically allows string contents starting at the second line and truncates the last newline.

Use @'...'@ or @"..."@ to present Verbatim Here String or Interpolated Here String.

@"
    <foo>$Profile</foo>
"@

@'
    {
        "foo": {
            "bar": []
        }
    }
'@

NOTE

You can have quotation mark " in @"..."@ and for ' respectively.

Character Escaping

Quotation Mark

Use double " to escape " in a interpolated string.

"""""" # ""
"I quote, ""haha!""" # I quote, "haha!"

Or use ` to escape the same quotation mark in the containing quotation.

"I quote, `"haha!`""

Use double ' to escape ' in a verbatim string.

'''''' # ''
'I quote, ''haha!''' # I quote, 'haha!'

NOTE

See about_Specical_Characters

Special Characters

Other special characters should only be escaped by `, and only available in a double quote string or double quote here string.

"Line with a new line `n"

@"
`tstarts with tab
"@

'no escape happened here! `n'

Arithmetic with Numeric

PowerShell will try to convert the string on the right operand to the same type as left operand. Exception will be raised if conversion failed.

1 + '2' # 3
'2' + 1 # '21'
[datetime]::Now + '00:00:15:00' # adds 15 minutes

Comparison

All comparison operators have its case-sensitive version with leading -c

• -gt -> -cgt
• -lt -> -clt
• ...

'Apple' -eq 'apple' # True
'Apple' -ceq 'apple' # False

Split & Join

'1,2,3' -split ',' # 1 2 3 as strings
(gci -file) -join ',' # ToString is invoked to evaluated objects to string.

Join from Objects

Join-String is a more generic solution for joining multiple items as a single string. -join operator handles only collection while Join-String can accept pipeline input by value.

• -Property(0): pick one property name or script block to be joined in the result

  gci -file | Join-String FullName
  gci -file | Join-String { $_.FullName }

• -Separator(1): separator between each two properties

  gci -file | Join-String FullName ', '

• -DoubleQuote: optionally surround each item by double quote
• -SingleQuote: optionally surround each item by single quote
• -OutputPrefix: specify a initial leading string for the result
• -OutputSuffix: specify a trailing string for the result
• -FormatString: use string format to reshape the string from -Property(you can do the similar in -Property too)

  gci -file | Join-String Name "$([Environment]::NewLine)" -FormatString 'File name: {0}'

Match & Replace

PowerShell has two kinds of matching strategy for strings.

• -match for regex matching.
• -like for wildcard matching.

While -replace only supports regex.

TIP

Match and replace is case-insensitive by default. Use -cmatch, -cnotmatch, -creplace, -csplit for case-sensitive scenarios.

'Janet is a girl' -match 'Jane' # True
'Janet is a girl' -replace '^Janet', 'Jane'
'Janet is a girl' -replace '^Janet', 'Jane' -replace 'is', 'is not' # replace multiple times inline.

All previous matches and captured groups can be accessed in $matches builtin variable. $matches is a HashTable, you can access named capture group by group name and use index for unamed group.

if ('John Smith' -match '^(?<FirstName>\b\w+\b) (\b\w+\b)$') {
    $matches.FirstName # John
    $matches[0] # John Smith
    $matches[1] # Smith
}

Enumerate in Replace PowerShell 6+

-replace allows access to the macthed object by $_ typed as System.Text.RegularExpressions.Match in a scriptblock to perform a more flexible action when replacing.

# Transform captured group in replace
'John Smith' -replace 'John', { $_.Value.ToLower() }

Format String

Template string syntax is the same as C#. Standard numeric format like :C, :X are supported.

'This is a {0} string' -f 'format'

Repetition

Use * to repeat a string.

'abc' * 2 # abcabc

Grep

Select-String is a builtin cmdlet that does the similar thing like grep in gnu coreutils. It can select one or more lines that matches the specified regex.

Select-String returns one or more Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.MatchInfo that majorly includes:

• Matches as System.Text.RegularExpressions.Match[]

• Line: content of the matched line

• LineNumber: line number of the matched line

• -SimpleMatch: prevent interpretation of -Pattern to a regex.

• -NotMatch: returns lines that doesn't match the -Pattern.

• -Path: try match the name of a dir or content of a file

• -Raw: return matched string instead of MatchInfo

• -Quiet: return flag that indicates whether the match succeeded($true) or not($null)

• -AllMatches: match all occurrences for each line.

• -List: match first occurrence in file.

• -NoEmphasis: cancel highlighting for matches

• Grep single line from pipeline

# -Pattern is positional
help sls | sls -Pattern 'Position\??\s*\d'

• Grep multiple lines from above and below

# include 3 lines above and 5 lines below the macthed line
help sls | sls 'Position\??\s*\d+' -Context 3,5

• Grep from pipeline passed by property(-Path)

PS ~> gci /nix/store/ -dir | sls 'roslyn'

/nix/store/m4npcw66155bbi8i7ipp0bbp54wdwwlg-roslyn-ls-4.13.0-3.24577.4
/nix/store/np6bigb7d3lvpinw0mrdvj38xi67q6sa-roslyn-ls-4.12.0-2.24422.6

• Match from a file, sls has different format for content from -Path which includes line number.

sls -Path ./foo.txt -Pattern 'foo'
gci *foo.txt | sls 'foo'

• Filter files match certain pattern quickly(doc said it is the most efficient way)

gci -file | sls -Pattern 'foo' -List | foreach Path

Convert to String

There's two way of general string conversion from object.

• formatting by Out-String
• ToString

ToString is sometimes limited since there might not be always a override available, so it just returns the type fullname. While formatting is more generalized as we usually see in console output, especially when pipe it to a cmdlet to do text manipulation. That's the reason why we have Out-String, which converts object to its formatted representation.

gci | Out-String | sls 'foo'

Out-String has a dedicated parameter -Stream which allow it to pipe the string single line each time. And PowerShell has a builtin function oss as an alias for Out-String -Stream

gci | Out-String | sls 'foo' # match the entire string
gci | oss | sls 'foo' # match the matched line only

String Evaluation

Collection

Collections like Array and HashTable are formatted by separator stored in $OFS(Output Field Separator)

"$(1, 2, 3)" # 1 2 3
$OFS = ', '
"$(1, 2, 3)" # 1, 2, 3

NOTE

$OFS is not a builtin variable, you'll have to create it manually or pwsh uses space as the default separator.