Replace a sign in a property

Question

Lets say I got this AB_1.2.3.112211 in a property

What I want is to exchange the first "." to a "_"

So it becomes AB_1_2.3.112211 The two first characters could be longer fx ABCD_1.2.3.112211 but it should still be the output ABCD_1_2.3.112211

Is there a way to do this in msbuild task?

Answer 1

If the input strings are always as you show them, i.e. the first "." to replace comes after an underscore followed by a number you can use a property function and use C#'s static Regex.Replace method:

<Target Name="Repl">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <Prop>ABCD_1.2.3.112211</Prop>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <Message Text="$([System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex]::Replace( $(Prop), '_(\d*)\.', '_$1_' ) )" />
</Target>

If the use case is more complicated there are other options:

• use another regular expression in the code above
• MSBuild Community tasks has a Regex task which supports the Count parameter of Regex.Replace, so you can use a simple regex to replace "." with "_" and set count to one to only do the first instance
• use an inline task in which you write your preferred implementation to replace the first instance from the answers here