Extract text from a string

Question

How do I extract the "program name" from a string. The string will look like this :

% O0033(SUB RAD MSD 50R III) G91G1X-6.4Z-2.F500 G3I6.4Z-8. G3I6.4 G3R3.2X6.4F500 G91G0Z5. G91G1X-10.4 G3I10.4 G3R5.2X10.4 G90G0Z2. M99 %

The program name is (SUB RAD MSD 50R III). Storing the result in another string is fine. I'm learning powershell so any explaination of your answers will be appreciated.

Will program name always be in the (), or will it always start at 7th character? — Andrey Marchuk, Feb 02 '12 at 13:37
There are multiple lines with "()" in the other files im working with. The program i need is in the first brackets. The pattern is "%" on the first line, second line starts with "O" and then a 4 digit number "????" and then the program is in the brackets strait after. Hope this helps guys — resolver101, Feb 03 '12 at 11:19

score 68 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 23 '22 at 18:01

The following regex extract anything between the parenthesis:

PS> $prog = [regex]::match($s,'\(([^\)]+)\)').Groups[1].Value
PS> $prog
SUB RAD MSD 50R III

Explanation (created with RegexBuddy)

Match the character '(' literally «\(»
Match the regular expression below and capture its match into backreference number 1 «([^\)]+)»
   Match any character that is NOT a ) character «[^\)]+»
      Between one and unlimited times, as many times as possible, giving back as needed (greedy) «+»
Match the character ')' literally «\)»

Further Reading:

score 20 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 02 '12 at 13:50

20

If program name is always the first thing in (), and doesn't contain other )s than the one at end, then $yourstring -match "[(][^)]+[)]" does the matching, result will be in $Matches[0]

answered Feb 02 '12 at 13:50

jsvnm

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...and since `-match` returns a boolean, you probably want something like `if($something -match "regexp") { $Matches[0] } else { '' }` in an expression context. – Nickolay May 10 '20 at 15:01

score 7 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 02 '12 at 15:27

7

Just to add a non-regex solution:

'(' + $myString.Split('()')[1] + ')'

This splits the string at the parentheses and takes the string from the array with the program name in it.

If you don't need the parentheses, just use:

$myString.Split('()')[1]

answered Feb 02 '12 at 15:27

Rynant

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mjolinor · Answer 4 · 2012-02-05T00:33:52.367

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Using -replace

 $string = '% O0033(SUB RAD MSD 50R III) G91G1X-6.4Z-2.F500 G3I6.4Z-8.G3I6.4 G3R3.2X6.4F500 G91G0Z5. G91G1X-10.4 G3I10.4 G3R5.2X10.4 G90G0Z2. M99 %'
 $program = $string -replace '^%\sO\d{4}\((.+?)\).+$','$1'
 $program

SUB RAD MSD 50R III

edited Feb 05 '12 at 00:33

answered Feb 02 '12 at 15:06

mjolinor

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There are multiple lines with "()". The pattern is – resolver101 Feb 03 '12 at 11:02
regex adjusted for new requirements – mjolinor Feb 05 '12 at 00:34

Extract text from a string

4 Answers4

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