PowerShell Regular Expressions Multiple matches

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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)


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