How do I replace text in a string in PowerShell?

Use $text.Replace('old', 'new') for exact, case-sensitive text, or $text -replace 'old', 'new' for regex and case-insensitive matching.

How do I replace multiple strings in PowerShell?

Chain operators, like $text -replace 'a', 'b' -replace 'c', 'd', or loop through a hashtable of find-and-replace pairs.

Why is $1 empty in my -replace result?

The replacement is in double quotes, so PowerShell expands $1 as a variable first. Use single quotes: -replace '(\w+)@', '$1 at '.

How do I remove special characters from a string in PowerShell?

Use $text -replace '[^a-zA-Z0-9 ]', ''. It removes everything except letters, numbers and spaces. See Microsoft's about_Comparison_Operators .

PowerShell Replace: .Replace() vs -replace (With Examples)

To replace text in a string in PowerShell, use the .Replace() method or the -replace operator. Both return a new string with the changes:

$message = 'Your order ships from Denver on Monday.'

$message.Replace('Denver', 'Austin')
$message -replace 'monday', 'Tuesday'

Output:

Your order ships from Austin on Monday.
Your order ships from Denver on Tuesday.

They look interchangeable, but they aren’t. .Replace() matches exact text and cares about case. -replace uses regular expressions and ignores case. I ran every example in PowerShell 7.6 and Windows PowerShell 5.1.

This Tutorial Covers:

.Replace() vs -replace

Here’s the difference on two small strings:

$ip = '10.0.0.1'
$greeting = 'Hello hello'

".Replace('.', '-'):     $($ip.Replace('.', '-'))"
"-replace '.', '-':      $($ip -replace '.', '-')"
".Replace('hello', 'Hi'): $($greeting.Replace('hello', 'Hi'))"
"-replace 'hello', 'Hi': $($greeting -replace 'hello', 'Hi')"

Output:

.Replace('.', '-'):     10-0-0-1
-replace '.', '-':      --------
.Replace('hello', 'Hi'): Hello Hi
-replace 'hello', 'Hi': Hi Hi

PowerShell .Replace() method vs -replace operator — The same replacement, two very different results (PowerShell 7)

	.Replace()	-replace
Matches	Exact text	A regular expression
Case	Sensitive	Ignored (use -creplace for sensitive)
Special characters like . $ ( )	Plain text	Need escaping
Works on arrays	Through member enumeration	Yes, on every item

A dot in -replace means “any character,” which is why every character became a dash. When you’re replacing plain text, .Replace() is the safer choice.

Case-insensitive .Replace() in PowerShell 7

PowerShell 7 can make .Replace() ignore case with a comparison option:

'Hello HELLO'.Replace('hello', 'Hi', [System.StringComparison]::OrdinalIgnoreCase)

Output in PowerShell 7:

Hi Hi

Windows PowerShell 5.1 doesn’t have this version of the method, so it stops with an error. Use -replace there.

Reuse matched text: $1 in single quotes

With -replace, a capture group in the pattern can be reused in the replacement as $1. Put the replacement in single quotes:

$email = 'alice@contoso.com'

"Double quotes: $($email -replace '(\w+)@', "$1 at ")"
"Single quotes: $($email -replace '(\w+)@', '$1 at ')"
"Dollar sign:   $('Total 100 USD' -replace '(\d+) USD', '$$$1')"

Output:

Double quotes:  at contoso.com
Single quotes: alice at contoso.com
Dollar sign:   Total $100

PowerShell -replace $1 in double quotes returns empty text — In double quotes, $1 is an empty PowerShell variable (Windows PowerShell 5.1)

In double quotes, PowerShell reads $1 as its own variable before -replace sees it, and the name disappears. For a literal dollar sign in the result, write $$. Microsoft covers substitutions in about_Comparison_Operators.

For prefix cleanup, like removing everything before a colon or underscore, see how to replace a string before a character.

Replace multiple strings at once

Chain several -replace operators, or loop over a hashtable of find-and-replace pairs:

$address = '1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, District of Columbia'

$short = $address -replace 'Avenue', 'Ave' -replace 'D