There are probably many ways to do this but I spotted this question in the Powershell forums and thought I’d share.
“Is there a way to restrict the output from “SELECT-STRING” to not show the Filename or the line number?
For those of you like me, still learning; SELECT-STRING allows you to scan a FILE or a SERIES of files for matching Content.
In it’s most basic form it works like this
SELECT-STRING –path FILEPATH\FILENAME –pattern ‘STUFFIAMLOOKINGFOR’
In the UNIX world I believe it was “GREPPING” :)
Anyhow normally if you do a SELECT-STRING on a file called say “DOG.TXT” for any reference to “CAT” you would get output like this
SELECT-STRING –path DOG.TXT –pattern ‘CAT’
dog.txt:1:This is a mean ugly cat
dog.txt:5:Cat is going around dog in Circles
dog.txt:93:Dog is laughing at soaking wet Cat
Yes a silly example but if you just wanted the lines (Say this was a security log? Say you just wanted parse out and build a new file with only specific content from the original? Those line numbers can be irritating! and USELESS.
So to clean it up, just use a FOREACH and pull out only what we need. A GET-MEMBER against the SELECT-STRING does as so
SELECT-STRING –path DOG.TXT –pattern ‘CAT’ | GET-MEMBER
Shows us the following results
The actual Property we’re looking for is just called “LINE”, it has the content without the Numbers. It you run the SELECT-STRING like THIS
SELECT-STRING –path DOG.TXT –pattern ‘CAT’ | GET-MEMBER | FOREACH { $_.Line }
You get just the lines Output. Also in Powershell, if you’re curious about output, just use a FOREACH { $_.Property } on the end of a line to read the actual content of Properties to see if it’s what you need.
Keep on Scripting!
Sean
The Energized Tech
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