In MSBuild, can I use the String.Replace function on a MetaData item?

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You can do this with a little bit of trickery:

$([System.String]::Copy('%(Filename)').Replace('config',''))

Basically, we call the static method ‘Copy’ to create a new string (for some reason it doesn’t like it if you just try $('%(Filename)'.Replace('.config',''))), then call the replace function on the string.

The full text should look like this:

<Target Name="Build">
        <Message Text="@(Files->'$([System.String]::Copy(&quot;%(Filename)&quot;).Replace(&quot;.config&quot;,&quot;&quot;))')" />
</Target>

Edit: MSBuild 12.0 seems to have broken the above method. As an alternative, we can add a new metadata entry to all existing Files items. We perform the replace while defining the metadata item, then we can access the modified value like any other metadata item.

e.g.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="12.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">

    <ItemGroup>
        <Files Include="Alice.jpg"/>
        <Files Include="Bob.not-config.gif"/>
        <Files Include="Charlie.config.txt"/>
    </ItemGroup>

    <Target Name="Build">
        <ItemGroup>
            <!-- 
            Modify all existing 'Files' items so that they contain an entry where we have done our replace.
            Note: This needs to be done WITHIN the '<Target>' (it's a requirment for modifying existing items like this
            -->
            <Files>
                <FilenameWithoutConfig>$([System.String]::Copy('%(Filename)').Replace('.config', ''))</FilenameWithoutConfig>
            </Files>
        </ItemGroup>

        <Message Text="@(Files->'%(FilenameWithoutConfig)')" Importance="high" />
    </Target>
</Project>

Result:

D:\temp>"c:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\12.0\Bin\MSBuild.exe" /nologo test.xml
Build started 2015/02/11 11:19:10 AM.
Project "D:\temp\test.xml" on node 1 (default targets).
Build:
  Alice;Bob.not-config;Charlie
Done Building Project "D:\temp\test.xml" (default targets).

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