PowerShell Regular Expressions Multiple matches
Example
There are multiple ways to find all matches for a pattern in a text.
#Sample text
$text = @"
This is (a) sample
text, this is
a (sample text)
"@
#Sample pattern: Content wrapped in ()
$pattern = '\(.*?\)'
Using Select-String
You can find all matches (global match) by adding the -AllMatches switch to Select-String.
> $m = Select-String -InputObject $text -Pattern $pattern -AllMatches
> $m | Format-List *
IgnoreCase : True
LineNumber : 1
Line : This is (a) sample
text, this is
a (sample text)
Filename : InputStream
Path : InputStream
Pattern : \(.*?\)
Context :
Matches : {(a), (sample text)}
#List all matches
> $m.Matches
Groups : {(a)}
Success : True
Captures : {(a)}
Index : 8
Length : 3
Value : (a)
Groups : {(sample text)}
Success : True
Captures : {(sample text)}
Index : 37
Length : 13
Value : (sample text)
#Get matched text
> $m.Matches | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Value
(a)
(sample text)
Using [RegEx]::Matches()
The Matches() method in the .NET `[regex]-class can also be used to do a global search for multiple matches.
> [regex]::Matches($text,$pattern)
Groups : {(a)}
Success : True
Captures : {(a)}
Index : 8
Length : 3
Value : (a)
Groups : {(sample text)}
Success : True
Captures : {(sample text)}
Index : 37
Length : 13
Value : (sample text)
> [regex]::Matches($text,$pattern) | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Value
(a)
(sample text)
