PowerShell: String Operators

Operator names are case-insensitive.

Join

-Join (str1, str2 …)

Join strings. (Parenthesis required.)

(str1, str2 …) -Join Delimiter

Join strings with delimiter. delimiter is a string and can have multiple characters.

-join ("a", "b", "c")
# "abc"

("a", "b", "c") -join " "
# "a b c"

Note, string can also be joined by +.

"a"+"b"+"c"
# "abc"

There is also a Join-String cmdlet.

Split

-Split str

Split string by whitespace such as `n, `t. Return a array.

-split "cat dog"

-Split (str1, str2 …)

Can have multiple operands.

str -Split delimiter

Use a delimiter.
• delimiter is a string, can be multiple characters.
• by default, delimiter is case-insensitive.
• by default, delimiter is interpreted as regex.
• The delimiters are removed from string. To include them in string, add parenthesis around it. For example: "(,)" splits string by comma, but include it in the result array.

str -Split delimiter, max

Split up to max count. Rest of string is concatenated as last element in array. Note, max is not the result length. Also, when including delimiter in result, it does not count towards max count.

str -Split delimiter, max, options

Options is one of:

• "SimpleMatch", "SimpleMatch,IgnoreCase"
• Comma separated string of one or more of RegexMatch, IgnoreCase,CultureInvariant,IgnorePatternWhitespace,ExplicitCapture
• Comma separated string of one of Singleline,Multiline

str -Split {ScriptBlock}

Use a script block.

str -Split {ScriptBlock}, Max

Use a script block with Max

-iSplit

Case-insensitive. Same as -Split.

-cSplit

Case-sensitive.

String Match by Wildcards

-like

String matches wildcard pattern. Case-insensitive

"mycat.jpg" -like "*jpg"
# True

# the wildcard must be on right side

-iLike

Case-insensitive. Same as -Like.

-cLike

Case-sensitive

-notLike

Negation.

-iNotLike

Case-insensitive. Same as -NotLike.

-cNotLike

Case-sensitive

String Match by Regex

-match

String matches regex pattern. Case-insensitive

"mycat.jpg" -match ".+jpg"
# True

# the regex must be on right side

-iMatch

Case-insensitive. Same as -Match.

-cMatch

Case-sensitive

-notmatch

Negation.

-iNotmatch

Case-insensitive. Same as -Notmatch.

-cNotmatch

Case-sensitive

String Regex Replace

-Replace

Replaces strings matching a regex pattern. Case-Insensitive.

-iReplace

Case-insensitive. Same as -Replace.

-cReplace

Case-sensitive

"wonderland" -replace "wonder", "lala"
# result
# lalaland

Escape Regex Meta Characters

[Regex]::Escape()

escape regex meta characters. Useful when a command or operator that takes regex, but you need plain text search.