Search through strings or files for patterns.
Syntax
Select-String [-pattern] string[] [-text string]
{-inputObject psobject | [-path] string[]}
[-include string[]] [-exclude string[]] [-simpleMatch]
[-caseSensitive] [-quiet] [-list] [CommonParameters]
Key
-pattern string
The string or regular expression to match.
-text string
Literal text to match against the value of -Pattern.
-Path path
Strings or files to match against, wildcards are allowed.
-include string
Include only the specified items from the Path. e.g. "May*"
this only works when the path includes a wildcard character.
-exclude string
Omit the specified items from the Path e.g. "*SS64*"
this only works when the path includes a wildcard character.
-simpleMatch
Use a simple match, rather than a regular expression match
-caseSensitive
Make the matches case sensitive.
-quiet
Suppress most of the output from Select-String.
When specified, only a boolean value is passed along the pipeline.
TRUE = a match was found, otherwise FALSE.
-list
Only return info. about the first match from each input file.
-inputObject psobject
Accept an object as input to Select-String. Enter a variable,
command or expression that gets the objects.
CommonParameters:
-Verbose, -Debug, -ErrorAction, -ErrorVariable, -OutVariable.
Examples
Perform a case sensitive matching of literal strings:
PS C:\>"Hello","HELLO" | select-string -pattern "HELLO" -casesensitive
Search through all files with the .xml file extension in the current directory and displays the lines in those files that include the case sensitive string "Princess":
PS C:\>select-string -path *.xml -pattern "Princess" -casesensitive
Retrieve the last 100 events from the application event log and filter to show only those containing the message string "failed":
PS C:\>$events = get-eventlog -logname application -newest 100
$events | select-string -inputobject {$_.message} -pattern "failed"
"The key insight is that the smallest constituents of the world are not particles, as had been supposed since ancient times, but "strings" - tiny strands of energy" - Jim Holt, (The New Yorker, 2006-10-02)
Related:
Get-Help - about_commonparameters
Get-Help - about_comparison_operators
Get-Help - about_regular_expression
Equivalent bash command: grep - Search files for specific text.
