string - Splitting filename - weird behavior

Question

I'm trying to split a filename like XXX_YYYY-YYYY_fff.xxx

If I'm using

'XXX_YYYY-UUUU_fff.xxx' -split '[-_`.]'

everything is working fine, showing:

XXX
YYYY
UUUU
fff
xxx

But when I'm using

'XXX_YYYY-UUUU_fff.xxx' -split '[_-`.]'

it does not split on dashes:

XXX
YYYY-UUUU
fff
xxx

Can anybody explain why?

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65945989/splitting-filename-weird-behavior

Answer 1

- specifies a range of characters in a regular expression. To get what you want, "escape" the - with ; e.g.:

C:> 'XXX_YYYY-UUUU_fff.xxx' -split '[_-.]'
XXX
YYYY
UUUU
fff
xxx

i.e., split the string using any of the following characters: _, -, or ..

You can also tell the regular expression parser that the - is a literal character in the set by placing it at the beginning of the set just after the [ or at the end of the set by placing it just before the ], as in:

[-_.]

or

[_.-]