# Removing characters from a string with -replace
**URL:** https://forums.powershell.org/t/removing-characters-from-a-string-with-replace/2114
**Category:** PowerShell Help
**Created:** [December 1, 2013, 6:27am UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/removing-characters-from-a-string-with-replace/2114 "2013-12-01T06:27:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@barry-thomson](https://forums.powershell.org/u/barry-thomson)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2013, 6:27am UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/removing-characters-from-a-string-with-replace/2114/1 "2013-12-01T06:27:21Z")
Hi,
I’m trying to use this to change the output of the line below from Computername\Username, to simply Username
Get-wmiobject win32\_computersystem | select username
When I use the code below, the output is @{username=\Username}
$User= get-wmiobject win32\_computersystem -computer $ComputerName2.text | select username
$ID= $User-replace “Computername”, “”
Where am I going wrong on this one?
Thanks
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### Author:  [@donj](https://forums.powershell.org/u/donj)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2013, 6:31am UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/removing-characters-from-a-string-with-replace/2114/2 "2013-12-01T06:31:53Z")
That’s because $user isn’t a string. It’s an object having a Username property (you could see that if you piped it to Get-Member). If, instead, you did “select-object -expand username” then you’d get the behavior you expected. -Expand extracts the CONTENT of the property, in this case returning a simple string.
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### Author:  [@dotnVo](https://forums.powershell.org/u/dotnVo)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2024, 8:52pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/removing-characters-from-a-string-with-replace/2114/3 "2024-05-16T20:52:34Z")