Search for >$(bla)< and replace

Question

I must replace a value in a file. This works for normal text with this command

(Get-Content $file) | Foreach-Object {$_ -replace "SEARCH", "REPLACE"} | Set-Content $file

But now, the search text is "$(SEARCH)" (without quotes). Backslash escaping the '$' with '`$' doesn't work:

(Get-Content $file) | Foreach-Object {$_ -replace "`$(SEARCH)", "BLA"} | Set-Content $file

Any ideas? Thank you.

Answer 1

The -replace operator is actually a regular expression replacement not a simple string replacement, so you've got to escape the regular expression:

(Get-Content $file) | Foreach-Object {$_ -replace '\$\(SEARCH\)', "BLA"} | Set-Content $file

Note that you can suppress string interpolation by using single quotes (') of double quotes (") around string literals, which I've done above.

Answer 2

Macintron,

You can try something like below :

(Get-Content $file) | Foreach-Object {$_.replace('$(SEARCH)', "BLA"} | Set-Content $file

Answer 3

slightly (or even more) faster

sc $file ((gc $file -Raw) -replace '\$\(search\)','BLAHH')