Loop through folders/files and replace word - powershell

Question

Trying to loop through a folders/subfolders that contains multiple html files to find a specific string/word.
Once the powershell script finds it - it will list which files contains the matching words.
Maybe a prompt for the user to replace the word or just set a variable such as $replaceword = 'test2'
$match = "THIS IS A TEST"
#$replacement = Read-Host "Please enter a solution name"
$files = Get-ChildItem -path C:\Users\testfolder -filter *THIS IS A TEST* -Recurse
$files
Sort-Object -Descending -Property { $_.FullName }
#Rename-Item -newname { $_.name -replace $match, $replacement } -force
$files = Get-ChildItem -path C:\Users\testfolder -include *.html -Recurse
foreach($file in $files)
{
((Get-Content $file.fullname) -creplace $match)
read-host -prompt "Done! Press any key to close."
}

Answer 1

You can do something like the following, which will replace matching content of .html files in the C:\Users\testfolder directory structure:
$matchString = 'THIS IS A TEST'
$replaceString = 'New String'
$files = Get-ChildItem -Path 'C:\Users\testfolder' -filter *.html -Recurse
foreach ($file in $files) {
$matchFound = $false
$output = switch -regex -file $file.fullname {
$matchString { $_ -replace $matchString,$replaceString
$matchFound = $true
}
default { $_ }
}
if ($matchFound) {
$output | Set-Content $file.fullname
}
}
If you really want an interactive prompt to replace the string, you can move the $replaceString to a different place within the script logic and add the Read-Host command.
Explanation:
The top of the script contains $matchString (the case-sensitive string you want to match) and $replaceString (the replacement string).
Get-ChildItem uses -Filter to find all files that end with the HTML extension. The -Recurse switch is used to search all subdirectories from the path.
The switch statement is used in favor of Get-Content because it typically performs faster. We only want to overwrite a file when a match is found. $matchFound begins as $false and will become $true when a match is found.
-creplace is used here since your source code used it. -creplace performs a case-sensitive regex match and replace.
Interactive Alternative:
For an interactive element, you can ask the user to enter the replacement string each time a match is found. This simply moves the $replaceString assignment inside of the switch statement and lists the file that contains the match.
$matchString = 'THIS IS A TEST'
$files = Get-ChildItem -Path 'C:\Users\testfolder' -filter *.html -Recurse
foreach ($file in $files) {
$matchFound = $false
$output = switch -regex -file $file.fullname {
$matchString { $replaceString = Read-Host -Prompt "$($file.fullname) contains '$matchString'. Enter your replacement string"
$_ -replace $matchString,$replaceString
$matchFound = $true
}
default { $_ }
}
if ($matchFound) {
$output | Set-Content $file.fullname
}
}

Answer 2

What about something like this, it's a simpler example:
$files = Get-ChildItem -Path c:\path\here -Recurse
$matchString = 'THIS IS A TEST'
$replacementString = 'replace'
foreach ($i in $files){
#Check its a file
if (!$i.PSIsContainer){
#Check the name contains the $matchString
if ($i.Name -match $matchString){
Set-Content -Path $i.FullName -Value $replacementString -Confirm:$true
}
}
}
Let me know if I've misunderstood what you want :)