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So let's go back into the PowerShell console,

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we'll look at how we manipulate string data by first replacing string values,

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then we'll split string values,

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and then we'll actually pad some string values as well.

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And next thing to look at is using things like replace and split so that

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we can take a string value and do something with it.

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So let's just create a new variable1,

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and what I'm going to do first is just null the values out just to make sure

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that any of the previous values that we had have been removed,

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and then what I'll do is I'll say,

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THe class instructor asked for a volunteer for a demonstration.

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Okay, that's my first variable.

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Then for my second variable, I'm going to say Jones and Tom, so two values.

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Okay, so what can we do with that?

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Well, firstly, what we can do is we can look at using replace,

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so I'm going to use my variable values that I just created,

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so variable1, and the sentence was,

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THe class instructor asked for a volunteer for a demonstration.

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But actually, what I realized is it shouldn't say instructor.

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It should say teacher, so I'm going to say "instructor", "teacher".

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So what we're doing here is I'm saying,

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get the value from variable1 then replace whatever

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you see with the word teacher.

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So I'm going to go over here, and you'll see,

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THe class teacher asked for a volunteer for a demonstration.

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Now, if I go back into variable1,

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you'll see it still says the class instructor because

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we didn't actually change the value.

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We just replaced it as it was coming back.

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Now, of course,

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that's actually a common technique that's often used that what you often

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have is a static value of some description that you may want to modify

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and change as you go up and down the script,

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but ultimately, you don't want to change the original value.

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So what we can do here is call a new variable.

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Let's say we call it replacevariable.

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I can then say variable1.

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I could repeat the same process, so replace "instructor", "teacher".

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And so now, if I do that and say replacevariable,

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that has the new value, whereas the variable1 I had still has the original value,

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but it means that I can always call back to that original one if

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I ever need to get those values to come back.

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Now,

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another option that we've got is the ability for kind of moving things around,

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so we can use regex replace to kind of move things around.

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So if we look at our variable2, for example, it says, Jones Tom.

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I actually just realized that it should be Tom Jones.

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So how do we move that around?

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Well, what we can do is we can say variable2,

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and we can use a replace, which is the standard function,

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and then now we can use some combination of regex to be able to do this.

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Now, of course, as you know,

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regex is normally a combination of certain types of brackets with

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letters to kind of identify where things are.

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So what we're doing here is we're going to take the first one,

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and we're going to split into the second one.

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So if I just do this here, a‑z, and then do a plus on this side,

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so basically, it's going to look for the space in the middle,

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take the two values.

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Once I have that split then I end up with two kind of variables, one is a $2,

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and one is $1, which basically is the output of it being chopped up.

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So you can see that we took variable to,

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which was Jones and Tom, used regex to find the first word,

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the second word, put them into various containers, so $1,

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$2, and then swap them around, so what you end up with now is Tom,

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Jones with a comma because I added the comma into the middle.

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Now, if I didn't add the comma, that could just be a space,

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and it would just say, Tom Jones.

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So we can use the replace to not actually replace words or text values,

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but actually to move things around and swap them as we need it.

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We can actually go even simpler at this point.

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So if I get rid of all of this extra piece here,

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if I just go back to replace,

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and what I can do is simply use just some quotes here,

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put the brackets, use a chevron, a‑z, and then I can do that,

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and that will literally just remove spaces.

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So the replace function serves a wider purpose than just replacing text values.

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So just be aware that it can be joined with other pieces too.

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Now, the other option that we have is to use the split.

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Now, I love using the split because often,

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when we have large amounts of information,

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we want to split it into smaller kind of pieces so

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that we can run something over it.

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So if I just type the word split, for example,

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Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun,

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so I have a series of values that are just spaced out in that text value.

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If I do split, it'll chop them each into a specific line.

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So that's one way of doing it.

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We may get a string set value that comes back, like this.

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Now,

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I'm pretty sure that most of the data that you will get back

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from various things will be comma separated.

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So in this instance, we can change the syntax around.

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So we're going to take the value first, so this is my,

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effectively, my array of data.

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I can then say, I want to split that information,

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and then I'm going to say, I want to use a comma for that and do Enter,

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and it will do the same thing.

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So the split can either use default spaces because the

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default delimiter is just a space, or we can tell it what the delimiter might be.

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Now, we can even go even crazier than this.

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What we can do is if we bring that back here,

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I've got the split with the comma. I could then go a little bit further and say,

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only get me three values.

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Now, notice what happens.

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It splits three times and then concatenate or joins the values together,

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so I get separate Jan, separate Feb, and then a Mar,

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April, May,

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Jun all together because I asked it to give me three values out of it.

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So let's try that one again.

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But this time, what we'll do is we'll, instead of using it all on one line,

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we'll actually have our variable.

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So we've got our variable, I'm going to call it variablesplit,

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and we'll do the same thing as before, Jan,

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Feb, Mar, Apr, Maty, Jun, like so,

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so I have a variable called variablesplit, let me,

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variablesplit, and I give it my values.

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I couldn't spell May properly, but that'll do for now.

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So we have our values.

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What we can then do is because we put them into a variable,

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when I do variable and call the name, I can then use Split.

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It becomes a method of the object.

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So I can go in here and say, I want to split it on the comma and sure enough,

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I get the same again.

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So if we're using data that's been injected into a variable,

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then of course we can come and split that value as we need to.

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Now, what about if the values that you're using,

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so this is where I get to correct my Maty,

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let's say we have a combination of the separators.

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So instead of the data being nice and clean and it comes back as commas,

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maybe we have a mix of commas, and semicolons,

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and something else,

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so I'm going to make sure my variable is populated with those values,

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and I'll just make sure the values come back.

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Sure enough, you can see the mix there, commas and the semicolons.

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What I do have the ability to do, I'll tell you what,

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let me just clear this so we can see it,

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is I can go to a variablesplit, and I can use the Split method again,

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and I'm going to say, do that with a comma,

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then I'm going to say Split again and use the second

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separator that we have, and when I do Enter,

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they all split nicely.

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So we have the flexibility of being able to split the data even

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if it comes back in a strange way with multiple characters or

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delimiters that we can utilize.

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Now, of course, the last one that we can utilize here is called padding,

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so the ability for us to add values or padding of some description

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to another text value of something or a number.

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This is done normally, let's say, you're passing a number around,

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and maybe all employee numbers have a series of 0s before it,

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you could pad all of those.

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So I'm going to call my variable pad1,

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and I'm just going to write the word Demonstration.

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I am also then going to create a new one,

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pad2, and it will also have the word Demonstration,

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just text values.

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Now, what we can do here is we're going to focus on pad1.

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So pad1, what we can do is go to the variable,

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and then you'll see we have an option called PadLeft,

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which is a function or method associated to that value.

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I can then say 14, and I'll explain what 14 is,

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and then I'll just say, Added, like so.

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Now, notice what happened here.

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It says, cannot convert the paddingChar,

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and that's good because you can't add a word to the end of it.

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What you have to do is add a character.

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And what you'll see is when I did that, it added A to the beginning of that.

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If I was to repeat that, and let's change this a little bit,

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and say, PadRight,

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but we'll do that on number 2, and, let's say, we change that to

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B, you'll now get the B at the other end of it.

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So when you're padding characters,

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you need to determine what the character is that you want to kind of

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pad and then what you're trying to pad into because they are just

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effectively string methods that are in .NET itself. So it can be quite

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useful to kind of pad something, if you needed to,

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to add something to the end of it.

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But when you combine all of these together where you can replace,

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you can then split and you can pad, you're able to manipulate the string values in the best way possible.