Is there a way to select files that matches a certain regex with CAML?

Question

$CAMLQuery = "<View Scope='RecursiveAll'>  
    <Query> 
        <Where><Eq><FieldRef Name='FileLeafRef' /><Value Type='Text'>bad_file</Value></Eq></Where> 
    </Query> 
    <ViewFields><FieldRef Name='FileRef' /><FieldRef Name='FileLeafRef' /></ViewFields> 
</View>"

I have the following CAML query, but it only selects files whose name is exactly "bad_file", but doesn't select files whose name is "bad_file.json" or "bad_file.txt". Is there a way to use regex so that I can select all files with the substring "bad_file"?

Answer 1

There is no support for regex within CAML, but there is a CONTAINS element that if you used like

<Contains><FieldRef Name='FileLeafRef' /><Value Type='Text'>bad_file</Value></Contains>

it would have matched both "bad_file.json" and "bad_file.txt".

Also, this is a common mistake, the CAML schema is slightly different depending on where you are using it. The <View> element is only the parent element when you are defining the schema for a custom View. If you are using it to execute a query programmatically through PowerShell,CSOM,JavaScript, etc., then <Query> should be your top-level, and the <View> is an optional child element.

Try this:

<Query><Contains><FieldRef Name='FileLeafRef' /><Value Type='Text'>bad_file</Value></Contains><View Scope='RecursiveAll'><ViewFields><FieldRef Name='FileRef' /><FieldRef Name='FileLeafRef' /></ViewFields></View></Query>