![\"Hey,](\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/02\/q-for-powertip.jpg\" "\\"Hey,")
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Hey, Scripting Guy! From the command line, how can I use a script to open a file and replace text; for example, how can I replace all instances of \u201cJim\u201d with \u201cJames\u201d? Hey, JW. As we\u2019ve found out numerous times when dealing with text files, there is no obvious way to do this; that is, there is no ReplaceText command that can open a text file and find and replace text. Fortunately, this problem is typical of text file questions in one other respect: although there\u2019s no obvious<\/I> way to carry out the task, we can still find a way to get the job done.<\/P>\n Although we can\u2019t directly search and replace text inside a text file, we can do the next best thing. We can: 1) open up a text file; 2) read the text into a variable; 3) do a search-and-replace on that variable<\/I>; and 4) re-save the text file. We can even do all that from the command line, although we\u2019ll hold off on that for a moment. Instead, let\u2019s start with a simple script that carries out the search and replace:<\/P> Set objFSO = CreateObject(“Scripting.FileSystemObject”)\nSet objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(“C:\\Scripts\\Text.txt”, ForReading)<\/p>\n strText = objFile.ReadAll\nobjFile.Close\nstrNewText = Replace(strText, “Jim “, “James “)<\/p>\n Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(“C:\\Scripts\\Text.txt”, ForWriting)\nobjFile.WriteLine strNewText\nobjFile.Close\n<\/PRE>\n We start off by creating two constants (ForReading<\/B> and ForWriting<\/B>), which we\u2019ll use for the two occasions when we\u2019ll open our text file. (Yes, we said two<\/I> occasions). We create an instance of the FileSystemObject<\/B>, and then use the OpenTextFile<\/B> method to open the file C:\\Scripts\\Text.txt for reading. <\/P>\n With the file open, we use the ReadAll<\/B> method to read the contents of the entire file into the variable strText. We then close C:\\Scripts\\Text.txt even though we\u2019ll almost immediately reopen it, this time for writing. Seems silly, yes, but that\u2019s the way the FileSystemObject works: you can open a file for reading or you can open a file for writing, but you can\u2019t perform both operations at the same time. (As you should know by now, the FileSystemObject works in mysterious ways.)<\/P>\n Having stored the contents of the file in the variable strText, we then use the VBScript Replace<\/B> function to replace all instances of Jim with James. That\u2019s what we do in this line of code:<\/P> Notice that we\u2019re looking for each instance of “Jim ” (Jim<\/I> followed by a blank space) and replacing those with “James ” (James<\/I> followed by a blank space). Though hardly foolproof, this gives our script a tiny bit of intelligence; if the script encounters the name Jimmy<\/I> it won\u2019t try to replace the Jim<\/I> with James<\/I> (resulting in Jamesmy<\/I>). The new file we create – the one where each Jim has been replaced by James – is stored in memory in the variable strNewText.<\/P>\n Next we reopen our file (for writing), call the WriteLine<\/B> method to write the contents of strNewText to the file, and then close the file a second time. The net effect? If we started off with a text file that looked like this:<\/P> we\u2019ll end up with a text file that looks like this:<\/P> As for doing this all from the command-line, we simply need to modify the script so that it will accept – in this order – three command-line arguments: the name of the file to open; the text we want to search for; and the text we want to replace. Here\u2019s a script that does just that. Note that we store the command-line arguments in the variables strFileName, strOldText, and strNewText, and we use those variables when opening and saving the text file and when calling the Replace function:<\/P> strFileName = Wscript.Arguments(0)\nstrOldText = Wscript.Arguments(1)\nstrNewText = Wscript.Arguments(2)<\/p>\n Set objFSO = CreateObject(“Scripting.FileSystemObject”)\nSet objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(strFileName, ForReading)<\/p>\n strText = objFile.ReadAll\nobjFile.Close\nstrNewText = Replace(strText, strOldText, strNewText)<\/p>\n Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(strFileName, ForWriting)\nobjFile.WriteLine strNewText\nobjFile.Close\n<\/PRE>\n To use this revised script (which we\u2019ll call replace.vbs<\/B>) just type a command similar to this from the command prompt:<\/P>
— JW<\/P>![\"Spacer\"](\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/05\/spacer.gif\")
![\"Hey,](\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/02\/a-for-powertip.jpg\" "\\"Hey,")
![\"Script](\"http:\/\/img.microsoft.com\/library\/media\/1033\/technet\/images\/scriptcenter\/ad.jpg\" "\\"Script")
<\/A> \nConst ForReading = 1\nConst ForWriting = 2<\/p>\n
strNewText = Replace(strText, “Jim “, “James “)\n<\/PRE>\n
Jim Jones\nMary Smith\nJim Doe\nJim Johnson\nMary Johnston\n<\/PRE>\n
James Jones\nMary Smith\nJames Doe\nJames Johnson\nMary Johnston\n<\/PRE>\n
Const ForReading = 1\nConst ForWriting = 2<\/p>\n
cscript replace.vbs “C:\\Scripts\\Text.txt” “Jim ” “James ”\n<\/PRE>
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