PowerShell: How to Extract Text Between Two Strings

You can use the following basic syntax to extract text between two strings using PowerShell:

[regex]::Match($original_string, '[^string1]+(?=string2)').Value

This particular example extracts the text between string1 and string2 within the string variable named original_string.

The following example shows how to use this syntax in practice.

Example: How to Extract Text Between Two Strings in PowerShell

Suppose that we have the following string:

And suppose that we would like to extract only the text between the colon ( : ) and the string Employee to get the following value:

We can use the following syntax to do so:

$original_string = "His ID Number:004593Employee"
[regex]::Match($original_string, '[^:]+(?=Employee)').Value

The following screenshot shows how to use this syntax in practice:

PowerShell extract text between two strings

Notice that we’re able to extract only the 004593 from the string, which represents all of the text between the colon ( : ) and Employee.

If you would like to extract the text between specific strings several times then you can use the Matches method instead.

For example, suppose that we have the following string:

And suppose that we would like to extract only the number for each employee ID to get the following:

We can use the following syntax to do so:

$original_string = "The ID Values are #004593Employee and #002321Employee"
[regex]::Matches($original_string, '[^#]+(?=Employee)').Value

The following screenshot shows how to use this syntax in practice:

PowerShell extract all occurrences of text between two specific strings

Notice that we’re able to extract only the number for each employee ID to get the following:

By using the Matches method, we’re able to extract all occurrences of text between two specific strings.