> Can I take the value, convert it to string, make some magic on it and convert it to another object entirely?
Get-ChildItem *.js | Get-Content | Select-Regex 'require\("(?<Require>.*?)"\)' | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Require
In other words: find JS files | read lines | turn regex capture groups into an object (another object entirely) | select a single captureUltimately, Microsoft provides WMI cmdlets[2]. You'd have strong types from the get-go and wouldn't need resort to this string silliness.
[1]: https://gist.github.com/jcdickinson/cee4582448300c0d404bbff1... [2]: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee176860.aspx
How so?
gci *.js | foreach { gc $_ | foreach { if ($_ -match ..) { $Matches...
which is ugly, but doesn't use [regex]::Matches. But you can do: sls 'require\("(.*?)"\)' *.js | select { $_.Matches.groups[1] }
or other variants of Select-String, depending on exactly what data you want, without departing into the .Net Framework too far.I don't see why this would be a problem for PowerShell. Just use Select-String to strip away the characters you're not interested in. The advantages that derive from passing around objects aren't based on all data being automatically in the format you want.
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff730948.aspx
You use the exact same functions (first, last, substring, replace, etc) as you would normally. Then the rest of the pipeline has it available if needed.
I don't know, I never had any problems with text parsing. I love strong types in programming languages, but in system administration I think it would only get in the way. But as I said, never tried it, so I might be missing something.