How to use Powershell string functions

When developing Powershell scripts for managing SQL Server Instances , eventually you will need to manipulate some strings.

In this case , I had to get the server name of a SQL Server instance reference – the part before the ‘\’ .

Use the Powershell Substring  and IndexOf  functions – for deriving a substring based on the position of a delimiter.

I’ve included examples of LTRIM,RTRIM and substring with a set position.

$instance = "MYSERVER\MYINSANCE"

#LTrim
$instance.TrimStart()
#RTrim
$instance.TrimEnd()
#Substring
$instance.Substring(1,4)
#IndexOf (equivalent of CHARINDEX) 
$instance.IndexOf('\')
#substring based on IndexOf
$instance.Substring(0,$instance.IndexOf('\'))