PowerShell FINDSTR eqivalent?

Question

What\'s the DOS FINDSTR equivalent for PowerShell? I need to search a bunch of log files for \"ERROR\".

Answer 1

PowerShell has basically precluded the need for findstr.exe as the previous answers demonstrate. Any of these answers should work fine.

However, if you actually need to use findstr.exe (as was my case) here is a PowerShell wrapper for it:

Use the -Verbose option to output the findstr command line.

---

function Find-String
{
    [CmdletBinding(DefaultParameterSetName='Path')]
    param
    (
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true, Position=0)]
        [string]
        $Pattern,

        [Parameter(ParameterSetName='Path', Mandatory=$false, Position=1, ValueFromPipeline=$true)]
        [string[]]
        $Path,

        [Parameter(ParameterSetName='LiteralPath', Mandatory=$true, ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$true)]
        [Alias('PSPath')]
        [string[]]
        $LiteralPath,

        [Parameter(Mandatory=$false)]
        [switch]
        $IgnoreCase,

        [Parameter(Mandatory=$false)]
        [switch]
        $UseLiteral,

        [Parameter(Mandatory=$false)]
        [switch]
        $Recurse,

        [Parameter(Mandatory=$false)]
        [switch]
        $Force,

        [Parameter(Mandatory=$false)]
        [switch]
        $AsCustomObject
    )

    begin
    {
        $value = $Pattern.Replace('\', '\\\\').Replace('"', '\"')

        $findStrArgs = @(
            '/N'
            '/O'
            @('/R', '/L')[[bool]$UseLiteral]
            "/c:$value"
        )

        if ($IgnoreCase)
        {
            $findStrArgs += '/I'
        }

        function GetCmdLine([array]$argList)
        {
            ($argList | foreach { @($_, "`"$_`"")[($_.Trim() -match '\s')] }) -join ' '
        }
    }

    process
    {
        $PSBoundParameters[$PSCmdlet.ParameterSetName] | foreach {
            try
            {
                $_ | Get-ChildItem -Recurse:$Recurse -Force:$Force -ErrorAction Stop | foreach {
                    try
                    {
                        $file = $_
                        $argList = $findStrArgs + $file.FullName

                        Write-Verbose "findstr.exe $(GetCmdLine $argList)"

                        findstr.exe $argList | foreach {
                            if (-not $AsCustomObject)
                            {
                                return "${file}:$_"
                            }

                            $split = $_.Split(':', 3)

                            [pscustomobject] @{
                                File = $file
                                Line = $split[0]
                                Column = $split[1]
                                Value = $split[2]
                            }
                        }
                    }
                    catch
                    {
                        Write-Error -ErrorRecord $_
                    }
                }
            }
            catch
            {
                Write-Error -ErrorRecord $_
            }
        }
    }
}