MsBuild Condition Evaluate Property Contains

Question

Attempting to create an itemgroup for use in a target where the file types are - Filename.CSS.ASPX

<Target Name="Test" AfterTargets="Build">
    <Message Text="Project $(ProjectName) Test PostBuild" Importance="high" />
    <Message Text="%(Content.FullPath)" Condition="%(Extension) == '.aspx' AND %(Filename.Contains(css))" Importance="high" />
</Target>

On Compile;

Error   1   Expected "%(Filename.Contains(css))" to evaluate to a boolean instead of "%(Filename.Contains(css))", in condition "%(Extension) == '.aspx' AND %   (Filename.Contains(css))".  C:\Projects\TestProj\TestProj\TestProj.csproj   58  38  TestProj

Any advice on expanding properties for evaluation?

You'll probably want to make sure that any string literals that you pass to property functions as parameters are properly quoted. `$(Property.Contains('literal'))` not `$(Property.Contains(literal))`. — Michael Price, Nov 16 '11 at 17:05

score 36 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 23 '14 at 04:42

As far as I know, you can use string functions (like Contains in your code) only for properties, not for item metadata. But you tried to invoke Contains for %(Filename) and this is a metadata of Content item.

To get more details see link to MSDN. The last paragraph strictly says:

Property functions may not appear within metadata values. For example, %(Compile.FullPath.Substring(0,3)) is not allowed.

However, you can use static methods of Regex class. I believe the following code is what you wanted:

<Target Name="Test" AfterTargets="Build">
    <Message Text="Project $(ProjectName) Test PostBuild" Importance="high" />
    <Message Text="%(Content.FullPath)" Condition=" $([System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex]::IsMatch('%(FullPath)', '.+\.css\.aspx')) " Importance="high" />
</Target>

If not, you can modify the regular expression in any way you need.

score 14 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:16

In answer to similar question In MSBuild, can I use the String.Replace function on a MetaData item? was suggestion to use [System.String]::Copy() as workaround to access non static System.String methods.

So code can be rewritten to:

    <Target Name="Test" AfterTargets="Build">
        <Message Text="Project $(ProjectName) Test PostBuild" Importance="high" />
        <Message Text="%(Content.FullPath)" Condition="%(Content.Extension) == '.aspx' AND $([System.String]::Copy(%(Content.Filename)).Contains('css'))" Importance="high" />
    </Target>

MsBuild Condition Evaluate Property Contains

2 Answers2

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