How to ignore escape sequences stored in PowerShell string variable?

Question

In my PowerShell script, I\'m running Select-String over a number of files, looking for a string passed into it via a variable ($id):

foreach ($file in (ls \         


        

Answer 1

Use the static escape() method, it instructs the regular expression engine to interpret these characters literally rather than as metacharacters:

$id = [regex]::escape($id)

You can also turn the command to a one liner (-path can take a collection of files):

Select-String -Path path\to\files\\* -Pattern ([regex]::escape($id)) -Quiet