Looking to remove text from text file using powershell

Question

I'm trying to edit a large plain text document containing various html elements such as the following:

<p> & </p>
<script> & </script>
<style> & </style>
<div> & </div>
And in more extreme cases; <span style="color: #ff0000;"> & </span>

My goal is to remove any <UniqueText> from a text file. I've not worked with powershell much so my knowledge is limited, none less, I gave it a shot.

For replacing all <UniqueText>

get-content "C:\Users\John\Desktop\input.txt" | -replace "\<.*?\>","" | Out-File C:\Users\John\Desktop\output.txt

The above script gives the following error:

-replace : The term '-replace' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program.

Are you removing HTML tags from an otherwise plain text file, or are you removing tags from an actual HTML file? For the latter I'd recommend using a proper HTML parser. — Ansgar Wiechers
– Ansgar Wiechers, Commented Aug 17, 2018 at 15:28
@AnsgarWiechers It's a plain text file. Sorry, should have stated that in the post. — John Kens
– John Kens, Commented Aug 17, 2018 at 15:29
@Paxz That worked like a charm. If you make a post containing that response I will mark it as solved. — John Kens
– John Kens, Commented Aug 17, 2018 at 15:36

Paxz · Accepted Answer · 2018-08-17 15:47:57Z

5

When you use -replace you have to be sure that you parse the string correctly to the call. There are two ways you can solve your problem:

1. Use foreach to go through each line of the file and use -replace on each line (this might be helpfull if you want to do something else with the lines):

get-content "C:\Users\John\Desktop\input.txt" | % {$_ -replace "\<.*?\>",""} | Out-File C:\Users\John\Desktop\output.txt

% is the alias for foreach

$_ is element of the foreach, so each line of the file

2. Use replace on the file without going through each line:

(get-content "C:\Users\John\Desktop\input.txt") -replace "\<.*?\>","" |  Out-File C:\Users\John\Desktop\output.txt

answered Aug 17, 2018 at 15:47

Paxz

3,0661 gold badge22 silver badges36 bronze badges

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

Comments

man.shahi · Accepted Answer · 2022-11-16 12:10:01Z

1

i use this command

Get-Content C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts | % {$_ -replace "some text","" -replace "some text",""} |Out-File C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts

but the file become empty.

answered Nov 16, 2022 at 12:10

man.shahi

215 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Looking to remove text from text file using powershell

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related