without rewriting your code... try.

$myFiles = Select-String "kct" *.sql -list | % {$_.get_filename()}
$myFilesNocount = select-string [^"nocount"] -path $myFiles -list | % {$_.path}
$myFilesNocount | % {
    $updateFileName = $_ + ".new"
    get-content $_ | join-string -newline | %{
        $_ -replace "\*\*\*\*/", "****/`nset NOCOUNT ON"
    }| out-file $updateFileName -encoding ASCII
}

-Glenn

This is what I had come up with after deciding to forgo interactive development, write some things down on the napkin, and then open an editor.  That was after I'd converted all 300 files and then written the same 1500 lines to 300 new files.

$myFiles = Select-String "kct" dbo.*.sql -list | % {$_.get_filename()}
$myFilesNocount = select-string [^"nocount"] -path $myFiles -list | % {$_.filename}
#
foreach ($FileName in $myFilesNoCount) 
{
    $updtFileName = "kct$FileName"
    get-content $FileName | join-string -newline | 
    % {$_ -replace "\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*/", "********/`nset NOCOUNT ON"} | 
    out-file $updtFileName
}

I am still unhappy with writers, more likely publishers, who keep putting out technical texts where all the examples use one variable, one file, and few examples of commands strung together to do something useful. I've been told the producer/publisher outlook is beginning text/video because there is no market for advanced/experienced technical information. And that leads to another post. Thanks again.

Changing the extra path statement to pattern got it to work. 

Confirm and whatif seem to work with set-content, but not with out-file

"anything" | out-file  dog.txt -encoding ascii -whatif   --  Wrote text to file with no prompt.

set-content  dog.txt "anything" -whatif  -- Does generate the whatif:.... and does not actually write to file.

Thanks for throwing in the format operator.  Not only did it take a while to stumble on the reference, but I don't understand the way this works.  I can see the benefit of formatting numerals, percentages, and time, but I'm not sure why kct{0} is a good thing.

kct

I could hit a curve, it was the fastball that kept me on the bench, and maybe poor fielding.

Thanks for this one

if ( ( Select-String -Path $_ -Pattern "kct" ) -and
        ( Select-String -Path $_ -Path [^"nocount"] ) ) {
I hated going through the file twice and now I have an example with two variables to work from.

To many years of debates over whether count > 0 or exists or ...  is more efficient.  I saw the "and" and then ignored the two select-string statements. 

My original pass through used piping from Regex to Regex changing char to nchar and varchar to nvarchar using $_. and should have added the nocount line.  Probably most efficient way, at least when you have multiple tests or multiple changes.

The processing still went a lot faster than any manual changes on my part.

Well I'd answer the same way based on age and experience.  I started putting a lot more comments in code when I kept gettng questions prefaced with "you know that program you wrote two years ago..."  I'll try to write something as efficient as possible and yet long ago realized that making the process understandable was usually more critical.

I'm still trying to learn Powershell so finding out what chews up cycles for no good reason is something to ask for feedback on. 

Have a happy fourth.