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I need to remove double quote in a text file, only if lines start with "https". File contents is like this:

... "bla, bla, bla" "https://example.com" "bar, bar, bar" ...

I've to match "https://example.com", remove both double quotes, leaves the double quotes in other lines, than set-content in place...

I've tried many methods but I'm stuck bacause I don't know how to handle double quotes in a regex, or declaring a filter in "if" or "where" statement and than replace text in place...

Latest try:

$TextFile = Get-Content "e:\file.txt" foreach ($Line in $TextFile) {if ($Line.StartsWith('"https')) { $line.trim('"')} | Set-Content $TextFile

But not works...

I've read this post and this but I don't understand how to fit these solutions to my needs..

Can Someone help me please?

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2 Answers 2

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Read the textfile in as single string using the -Raw switch and then do a regex replace:

(Get-Content "e:\file.txt" -Raw) -replace '(\s*)"(https:[^"]+)"','$1$2'

If you need to overwrite the text file with the new content, append 

| Set-Content -Path "e:\file.txt" -Force

to the above.

Output:

 ... "bla, bla, bla" https://example.com "bar, bar, bar" ...

Regex details:

 ( Match the regular expression below and capture its match into backreference number 1 \s Match a single character that is a “whitespace character” (spaces, tabs, line breaks, etc.) * Between zero and unlimited times, as many times as possible, giving back as needed (greedy) ) " Match the character “"” literally ( Match the regular expression below and capture its match into backreference number 2 https: Match the characters “https:” literally [^"] Match any character that is NOT a “"” + Between one and unlimited times, as many times as possible, giving back as needed (greedy) ) " Match the character “"” literally
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2 Comments

What can I say... really awesome Theo! Just to be sure that I've understand correctly, the expression '$1$2' represent the number of times that -replace has to act?
@ilRobby Thanks and no. $1$2 means to replace the string with what is captured in backreference 1 and 2.(the stuff in between the brackets). The first in this case captures the whitespace to the left; the second captures the url between the quotes.
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To GET the 'https://' string without double quotes:

$content = Get-Content PATH TO YOUR FILE foreach( $line in $content ) { if( $line -match "(`"https:\/\/)" ) { $line -replace '"','' } }
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