insert blank line before matching pattern in multiple files using powershell - powershell

Question

Requirement is to insert a blank line in multiple files before the matching pattern line
Consider a file with below contents
Apple
Tree
orange
[Fruit]
Red
Green
Expected output:
Apple
Tree
orange
[Fruit]
Red
Green
Tried below code. Help me to figure out the mistake in below code
$FileName = Get-ChildItem -Filter *.ini -Recurse
$Pattern = "\[Fruit]\"
[System.Collections.ArrayList]$file = Get-Content $FileName
$insert = #()
for ($i=0; $i -lt $file.count; $i++) {
if ($file[$i] -match $pattern) {
$insert += $i #Record the position of the line before this one
}
}
#Now loop the recorded array positions and insert the new text
$insert | Sort-Object -Descending | ForEach-Object { $file.insert($_," ") }
Set-Content $FileName $file
above code owrks fine for single file but for multiple file, the contents of the file are repeated

Answer 1

Re: how to make this work for multiple files...
$FileName = Get-ChildItem -Filter *.ini -Recurse
If there is only one .ini file then $FileName will be a single file.
The use of the wildcard and -Recurse switch suggests that you are expecting to find multiple files; thus this command will assign that collection of files to the $FileName variable (i.e. it will be an array).
Notice that when you call Get-Content you pass $FileName:
[System.Collections.ArrayList]$file = Get-Content $FileName
This won't work when $FileName is a collection/array of files.
What you need to do is put a loop in place that will perform your "insert a line break" logic foreach (hint hint) of the files in the array. NOW go and look at those PS tutorials again...

Answer 2

Regex character class
Try to take the time to learn regex properly
$Pattern = "\[Fruit\]"