PS: Get Text Between Two Lines

1 minute read

Description:

Use this to get all text between two lines in a text file.

To Resolve:

  1. One way:

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    $file = Get-Content C:\scripts\text.txt
    # get the line numbers of text you want to extract from. For example, lines 1 and 32
    # remember to subtract 1 because indexes start at 0
    $inner = $file[0]
    $outer = $file[31]
    
    # now we use the readcount property which is an int to loop through all the lines between and add to an array - $array
    $array = @()
    for ($i = ($inner.ReadCount); $i -lt ($outer.ReadCount - 1); $i++)
    {
    $array += $file[$i]
    }
    # $array now contains all lines between your start and end points!
    
  2. Another way

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    # this will return all lines that don't match a specific pattern.
    $results = Select-String -Pattern '\*\*\*' -NotMatch -AllMatches C:\scripts\file.txt
    
    # you can then loop through $results[$i].line to see the values and put them in an array.
    $array = @()
    for ($i = 0; $i -lt $results.Length; $i++)
    { 
       $array += $results[$i].Line
    }
    
  3. For example, in my “clean transcripts” section of my logging functions:

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    # Now we will clean up the transcript file as it contains filler info that needs to be removed...
    $Transcript = Get-Content $Logfile -raw
    
    # Create a tempfile
    $TempFile = $PSScriptRoot + "\PSLogs\temp.txt"
    New-Item -Path $TempFile -ItemType File | Out-Null
    
    # Get all the matches for PS Headers and dump to a file
    $Transcript | 
       Select-String '(?smi)\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*([\S\s]*?)\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*' -AllMatches | 
       ForEach-Object {$_.Matches} | 
       ForEach-Object {$_.Value} | 
       Out-File -FilePath $TempFile -Append
    
    # Compare the two and put the differences in a third file
    $m1 = Get-Content -Path $Logfile
    $m2 = Get-Content -Path $TempFile
    $all = Compare-Object -ReferenceObject $m1 -DifferenceObject $m2 | Where-Object -Property Sideindicator -eq '<='
    $Array = [System.Collections.Generic.List[PSObject]]@()
    foreach ($a in $all)
    {
       [void]$Array.Add($($a.InputObject))
    }
    $Array = $Array -replace 'VERBOSE: ', ''
    
    Remove-Item -Path $Logfile -Force
    Remove-Item -Path $TempFile -Force
    # Finally, put the information we care about in the original file and discard the rest.
    $Array | Out-File $Logfile -Append -Encoding ASCII
    

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