Hello Scripting Guys,

I'm unsuccessfully trying to use the select-string cmdlet to find all occurrences of the string "Number of disposed messages : " in a log directory. I can use select-string to find all occurrences of ":" in the same log folder.

Why can't the select-string cmdlet find my string?

Sincerely,

Brian Street.

p.s. I am able to use the PowerShell example # 3: PS C:\> select-string -path $pshome\en-US\*.txt -pattern "@"  I'm also able to search within the log folder for the occurrence of ":" in the log files.

• Edited by BSTREET-TechNet 12 hours 55 minutes ago

Hi Brian,

What command are you actually running? This should work just fine:

PS C:\Scripts\PowerShell Scripts\Misc Testing\8-20-2015> Select-String -Path *.txt -Pattern 'Number of disposed messages :'

1.txt:3:Number of disposed messages : file 1
2.txt:3:Number of disposed messages : file 2
4.txt:3:Number of disposed messages : file 4


1.txt:
blah : 1
blah : 2
Number of disposed messages : file 1
blah : 3

2.txt:
blah : 1
blah : 2
Number of disposed messages : file 2
blah : 3

3.txt:
blah : 1
blah : 2
blah : 3

4.txt
blah : 1
blah : 2
Number of disposed messages : file 4
blah : 3

Thanks for the response.

I'm running the following command: select-string -Path *.txt -Pattern "Number of disposed messages :" from within the log folder.  I can search within the same folder for occurrences of ":" but as soon as I add any words inside the double-quotes, it fails to return any results.

• Edited by BSTREET-TechNet 12 hours 49 minutes ago

Interesting. I can't replicate your issue, as the command I used is exactly the same as yours (I used single quotes, but doubles do work).

Perhaps there is something odd with your input files. Try using my small test files and see if the issue continues.

Thanks Mike.

ok; that definitely confirms there is something fishy with the log files I'm searching.

• Edited by BSTREET-TechNet 12 hours 33 minutes ago

update:

the log files were saved in Unicode format. when I saved a log file as ANSI format I was able to search the file for the occurrence of the string.

Adding -Encoding Unicode to the cmdlet resolved the issue.

• Edited by BSTREET-TechNet 12 hours 4 minutes ago

update:

the log files were saved in Unicode format. when I saved a log file as ANSI format I was able to search the file for the occurrence of the string.

In that case you can try using Select-String's -Encoding parameter:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh849903%28v=wps.630%29.aspx