Example based parsing in V5

gistfile1.ps1

# In collaboration with Microsoft Research, a new ConvertFrom-String cmdlet has been added.
# This cmdlet supports two modes: basic delimited parsing, and auto generated example-driven parsing.
# Delimited parsing, by default, splits the input at white space, and assigns property names to the resulting groups. You can customize the delimiter: 
1 [C:\temp]
>> "Hello World" | ConvertFrom-String | Format-Table -Auto
P1    P2
--    --

# The cmdlet also supports auto-generated example-driven parsing based on the FlashExtract research work in Microsoft Research.
# To get started, consider a text-based address book:
#     Ana Trujillo
#     Redmond, WA
# 
#     Antonio Moreno
#     Renton, WA
# 
#     Thomas Hardy
#     Seattle, WA
# 
#     Christina Berglund
#     Redmond, WA
# 
#     Hanna Moos
#     Puyallup, WA

# Copy a few examples into a file, which you will use as your template:
#     Ana Trujillo
#     Redmond, WA
# 
#     Antonio Moreno
#     Renton, WA
    
# Put curly braces around data that you want to extract, giving it a name as you do so. Because the Name property (and its associated other properties) can appear multiple times, use an asterisk (*) to indicate that this results in multiple records (rather than extracting a bunch of properties into one record):
#     {Name*:Ana Trujillo}
#     {City:Redmond}, {State:WA}
# 
#     {Name*:Antonio Moreno}
#     {City:Renton}, {State:WA}

# From this set of examples, ConvertFrom-String can now automatically extract object-based output from input files with similar structure.
2 [C:\temp]
>> Get-Content .\addresses.output.txt | ConvertFrom-String -TemplateFile .\addresses.template.txt |
>>> Format-Table -Auto
ExtentText                     Name               City     State
----------                     ----               ----     -----
Ana Trujillo...                Ana Trujillo       Redmond  WA
Antonio Moreno...              Antonio Moreno     Renton   WA
Thomas Hardy...                Thomas Hardy       Seattle  WA
Christina Berglund...          Christina Berglund Redmond  WA
Hanna Moos...                  Hanna Moos         Puyallup WA

# To do additional data manipulation on extracted text, the ExtentText property captures the raw text from which the record was extracted. To provide feedback on this feature, or to share content that you are having difficulty writing examples for, please email psdmfb@microsoft.com.