I am having issues finding a way to expand two properties from select-object that I need to pass into Test-Path. The issue is if I do not expand the property and pass into Test-Path I will get #{} in the error - I think powershell treats it as an object?
Does anyone know if there is a way to achieve this?
I have tried few things like below but to no avail...
Invoke-Sqlcmd -ServerInstance $Database -Query $myquery |
Where-Object {$_.Name -like "*JD*"} | Select #{Expression={$_.Name, $_.FileExtension -join "."}} | FT -HideTableHeaders
Ideally my query should return:
FileName.extension
that I can then pass onto Test-Path without powershell treating it as an object, but a string if I am not mistaken?
Edit 1: Not sure if it helps but thought I'd add it here just for more clarity hopefully.
My SQL table has data like this:
Column A | Column B
FileName | FileExtension
Edit 2: Including foreach loop for clarification and pipeline output
$FilePath = "\\Server1\Folder1\Folder2\"
foreach ($path in $myquery) {
$path2 = $FilePath + $path
# check FileExtensions if exist or not
if (!(Test-Path $path2))
{
Write-host " $path | Does not exist"
}
}
Pipeline output looks like this:
\\Server1\Folder1\Folder2\#{LiteralPath=FileName.ExtensionName}
# This is getting treated as does not exist because I have "#{LiteralPath=}" left in there, if I can remove it I should be golden
If I understand the question properly, you want to combine filenames from two columns in the resulting query and next test if that file exists or not.
In that case try
Invoke-Sqlcmd -ServerInstance $Database -Query $myquery |
Where-Object {$_.Name -like "*JD*"} |
ForEach-Object {
# it is unclear what the column names really are..
# your example shows 'Column A' and 'Column A', but your code uses 'Name' or 'FileName'
# and 'FileExtension', so you have to decide which is which..
$file = '{0}.{1}' -f $_.'Column A', $_.'Column B'.TrimStart(".")
# hopefully your query results in a complete path and filename, if not,
# provide the path to the file here:
# $file = Join-Path -Path $FolderPathWhereTheFileShouldBeFound -ChildPath $file
# now you can test if the file exists
if (Test-Path -Path $file -PathType Leaf) {
# do something here
Write-Host "File '$file' exists" -ForegroundColor Green
}
else {
# bummer.. file not found
Write-Host "File '$file' does NOT exist" -ForegroundColor Red
}
}
Please read the inline comments because too much is still unclear to me..
1. Code Description alias how it is intended to work
User enters a path to a directory in PowerShell. Code checks if any folder within the declared directory contains no data at all. If so, the path of any empty folder will be shown on the prompt to the user and eventually removed from the system.
2. The Issue alias what I am struggling with
The code I just wrote doesn't count the depth of a folder hierarchy as I would expect (the column in the output table is blank). Besides that, the program works okay - I've still got to fix the issue where my code removes empty parent directories first and child directories later, which of course will cause an error in PowerShell; for instance, take
C:\Users\JohnMiller\Desktop\Homework
where Homework consists of Homework\Math\School Project and Homework\Computer Science\PowerShell Code. Note that all directories are supposed to be empty with the exception of PowerShell Code, the folder containing this script. (Side note: A folder is considered empty when no file dwells inside. At least that's what my code is based on for now.)
3. The Code
# Delete all empty (sub)folders in [$path]
[Console]::WriteLine("`n>> Start script for deleting all empty (sub)folders.")
$path = Read-Host -prompt ">> Specify a path"
if (test-path $path)
{
$allFolders = Get-ChildItem $path -recurse | Where {$_.PSisContainer -eq $True}
$allEmptyFolders = $allFolders | Where-Object {$_.GetFiles().Count -eq 0}
$allEmptyFolders | Select-Object FullName,#{Name = "FolderDepth"; Expression = {$_.DirectoryName.Split('\').Count}} | Sort-Object -descending FolderDepth,FullName
[Console]::WriteLine("`n>> Do you want do remove all these directories? Validate with [True] or [False].") #'#
$answer = Read-Host -prompt ">> Answer"
if ([System.Convert]::ToBoolean($answer) -eq $True)
{
$allEmptyFolders | Remove-Item -force -recurse
}
else
{
[Console]::WriteLine(">> Termination confirmed.`n")
exit
}
}
else
{
[Console]::WriteLine(">> ERROR: [$($path)] is an invalid directory. Program terminates.`n")
exit
}
The depth-count problem:
Your code references a .DirectoryName property in the calculated property passed to Select-Object, but the [System.IO.DirectoryInfo] instances output by Get-ChildItem have no such property. Use the .FullName property instead:
$allEmptyFolders |
Select-Object FullName,#{Name='FolderDepth'; Expression={$_.FullName.Split('\').Count}} |
Sort-Object -descending FolderDepth,FullName
Eliminating nested empty subfolders:
To recap your problem with a simple example:
If c:\foo is empty (no files) but has empty subdir. c:\foo\bar, your code outputs them both, and if you then delete c:\foo first, deleting c:\foo\bar next fails (because deleting c:\foo also removed c:\foo\bar).
If you eliminate all nested empty subdirs. up front, you not only declutter what you present to the user, but you can then safely iterative of the output and delete one by one.
With your approach you'd need a 2nd step to eliminate the nested empty dirs., but here's a depth-first recursive function that omits nested empty folders. To make it behave the same way as your code with respect to hidden files, pass -Force.
function Get-RecursivelyEmptyDirectories {
[cmdletbinding()]
param(
[string] $LiteralPath = '.',
[switch] $Force,
[switch] $DoNotValidatePath
)
$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'
if (-not $DoNotValidatePath) {
$dir = Get-Item -LiteralPath $LiteralPath
if (-not $dir.PSIsContainer) { Throw "Not a directory path: $LiteralPath" }
$LiteralPath = $dir.FullName
}
$haveFiles = [bool] (Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $LiteralPath -File -Force:$Force | Select-Object -First 1)
$emptyChildDirCount = 0
$emptySubdirs = $null
if ($childDirs = Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $LiteralPath -Directory -Force:$Force) {
$emptySubDirs = New-Object System.Collections.ArrayList
foreach($childDir in $childDirs) {
if ($childDir.LinkType -eq 'SymbolicLink') {
Write-Verbose "Ignoring symlink: $LiteralPath"
} else {
Write-Verbose "About to recurse on $($childDir.FullName)..."
try { # If .AddRange() fails due to exceeding the array list's capacity, we must fail too.
$emptySubDirs.AddRange(#(Get-RecursivelyEmptyDirectories -DoNotValidatePath -LiteralPath $childDir.FullName -Force:$Force))
} catch {
Throw
}
# If the last entry added is the child dir. at hand, that child dir.
# is by definition itself empty.
if ($emptySubDirs[-1] -eq $childDir.FullName) { ++$emptyChildDirCount }
}
} # foreach ($childDir ...
} # if ($childDirs = ...)
if (-not $haveFiles -and $emptyChildDirCount -eq $childDirs.Count) {
# There are no child files and all child dirs., if any, are themselves
# empty, so we only output the input path at hand, as the highest
# directory in this subtree that is empty (save for empty descendants).
$LiteralPath
} else {
# This directory is not itself empty, so output the (highest-level)
# descendants that are empty.
$emptySubDirs
}
}
Tips regarding your code:
Get-ChildItem -Directory is available in PSv3+, which is not only shorter but also more efficient than Get-ChildItem | .. Where { $_.PSisContainer -eq $True }.
Use Write-Host instead of [Console]::WriteLine
[System.Convert]::ToBoolean($answer) only works with the culture-invariant string literals 'True' and 'False' ([bool]::TrueString and [bool]::FalseString, although case variations and leading and trailing whitespace are allowed).
I am trying to write a PowerShell script that will loop through a directory in C:\ drive and parse the filenames with the file extension to another script to use.
Basically, the output of the directory listing should be accessible to be parsed to another script one by one. The script is a compiling script which expects an argument (parameter) to be parsed to it in order to compile the specific module (filename).
Code:
Clear-Host $Path = "C:\SandBox\"
Get-ChildItem $Path -recurse -force | ForEach { If ($_.extension -eq ".cob")
{
Write-Host $_.fullname
}
}
If ($_.extension -eq ".pco")
{
Write-Host $_.fullname }
}
You don't need to parse the output as text, that's deprecated.
Here's something that might work for you:
# getmyfiles.ps1
Param( [string])$Path = Get-Location )
dir $Path -Recurse -Force | where {
$_.Extension -in #('.cob', '.pco')
}
# this is another script that calls the above
. getmyfile.ps1 -Path c:\sandbox | foreach-object {
# $_ is a file object. I'm just printing its full path but u can do other stuff eith it
Write-host $_.Fullname
}
Clear-Host
$Path = "C:\Sandbox\"
$Items = Get-ChildItem $Path -recurse -Include "*.cob", "*.pco"
From your garbled code am guessing you want to return a list of files that have .cob and .pco file extensions. You could use the above code to gather those.
$File = $Items.name
$FullName = $items.fullname
Write-Host $Items.name
$File
$FullName
Adding the above lines will allow you to display them in various ways. You can pick the one that suites your needs then loop through them on a for-each.
As a rule its not a place for code to be writen for you, but you have tried to add some to the questions so I've taken a look. Sometimes you just want a nudge in the right direction.
I want to write a PowerShell script that will recursively search a directory, but exclude specified files (for example, *.log, and myFile.txt), and also exclude specified directories, and their contents (for example, myDir and all files and folders below myDir).
I have been working with the Get-ChildItem CmdLet, and the Where-Object CmdLet, but I cannot seem to get this exact behavior.
I like Keith Hill's answer except it has a bug that prevents it from recursing past two levels. These commands manifest the bug:
New-Item level1/level2/level3/level4/foobar.txt -Force -ItemType file
cd level1
GetFiles . xyz | % { $_.fullname }
With Hill's original code you get this:
...\level1\level2
...\level1\level2\level3
Here is a corrected, and slightly refactored, version:
function GetFiles($path = $pwd, [string[]]$exclude)
{
foreach ($item in Get-ChildItem $path)
{
if ($exclude | Where {$item -like $_}) { continue }
$item
if (Test-Path $item.FullName -PathType Container)
{
GetFiles $item.FullName $exclude
}
}
}
With that bug fix in place you get this corrected output:
...\level1\level2
...\level1\level2\level3
...\level1\level2\level3\level4
...\level1\level2\level3\level4\foobar.txt
I also like ajk's answer for conciseness though, as he points out, it is less efficient. The reason it is less efficient, by the way, is because Hill's algorithm stops traversing a subtree when it finds a prune target while ajk's continues. But ajk's answer also suffers from a flaw, one I call the ancestor trap. Consider a path such as this that includes the same path component (i.e. subdir2) twice:
\usr\testdir\subdir2\child\grandchild\subdir2\doc
Set your location somewhere in between, e.g. cd \usr\testdir\subdir2\child, then run ajk's algorithm to filter out the lower subdir2 and you will get no output at all, i.e. it filters out everything because of the presence of subdir2 higher in the path. This is a corner case, though, and not likely to be hit often, so I would not rule out ajk's solution due to this one issue.
Nonetheless, I offer here a third alternative, one that does not have either of the above two bugs. Here is the basic algorithm, complete with a convenience definition for the path or paths to prune--you need only modify $excludeList to your own set of targets to use it:
$excludeList = #("stuff","bin","obj*")
Get-ChildItem -Recurse | % {
$pathParts = $_.FullName.substring($pwd.path.Length + 1).split("\");
if ( ! ($excludeList | where { $pathParts -like $_ } ) ) { $_ }
}
My algorithm is reasonably concise but, like ajk's, it is less efficient than Hill's (for the same reason: it does not stop traversing subtrees at prune targets). However, my code has an important advantage over Hill's--it can pipeline! It is therefore amenable to fit into a filter chain to make a custom version of Get-ChildItem while Hill's recursive algorithm, through no fault of its own, cannot. ajk's algorithm can be adapted to pipeline use as well, but specifying the item or items to exclude is not as clean, being embedded in a regular expression rather than a simple list of items that I have used.
I have packaged my tree pruning code into an enhanced version of Get-ChildItem. Aside from my rather unimaginative name--Get-EnhancedChildItem--I am excited about it and have included it in my open source Powershell library. It includes several other new capabilities besides tree pruning. Furthermore, the code is designed to be extensible: if you want to add a new filtering capability, it is straightforward to do. Essentially, Get-ChildItem is called first, and pipelined into each successive filter that you activate via command parameters. Thus something like this...
Get-EnhancedChildItem –Recurse –Force –Svn
–Exclude *.txt –ExcludeTree doc*,man -FullName -Verbose
... is converted internally into this:
Get-ChildItem | FilterExcludeTree | FilterSvn | FilterFullName
Each filter must conform to certain rules: accepting FileInfo and DirectoryInfo objects as inputs, generating the same as outputs, and using stdin and stdout so it may be inserted in a pipeline. Here is the same code refactored to fit these rules:
filter FilterExcludeTree()
{
$target = $_
Coalesce-Args $Path "." | % {
$canonicalPath = (Get-Item $_).FullName
if ($target.FullName.StartsWith($canonicalPath)) {
$pathParts = $target.FullName.substring($canonicalPath.Length + 1).split("\");
if ( ! ($excludeList | where { $pathParts -like $_ } ) ) { $target }
}
}
}
The only additional piece here is the Coalesce-Args function (found in this post by Keith Dahlby), which merely sends the current directory down the pipe in the event that the invocation did not specify any paths.
Because this answer is getting somewhat lengthy, rather than go into further detail about this filter, I refer the interested reader to my recently published article on Simple-Talk.com entitled Practical PowerShell: Pruning File Trees and Extending Cmdlets where I discuss Get-EnhancedChildItem at even greater length. One last thing I will mention, though, is another function in my open source library, New-FileTree, that lets you generate a dummy file tree for testing purposes so you can exercise any of the above algorithms. And when you are experimenting with any of these, I recommend piping to % { $_.fullname } as I did in the very first code fragment for more useful output to examine.
The Get-ChildItem cmdlet has an -Exclude parameter that is tempting to use but it doesn't work for filtering out entire directories from what I can tell. Try something like this:
function GetFiles($path = $pwd, [string[]]$exclude)
{
foreach ($item in Get-ChildItem $path)
{
if ($exclude | Where {$item -like $_}) { continue }
if (Test-Path $item.FullName -PathType Container)
{
$item
GetFiles $item.FullName $exclude
}
else
{
$item
}
}
}
Here's another option, which is less efficient but more concise. It's how I generally handle this sort of problem:
Get-ChildItem -Recurse .\targetdir -Exclude *.log |
Where-Object { $_.FullName -notmatch '\\excludedir($|\\)' }
The \\excludedir($|\\)' expression allows you to exclude the directory and its contents at the same time.
Update: Please check the excellent answer from msorens for an edge case flaw with this approach, and a much more fleshed out solution overall.
Recently, I explored the possibilities to parameterize the folder to scan through and the place where the result of recursive scan will be stored. At the end, I also did summarize the number of folders scanned and number of files inside as well. Sharing it with community in case it may help other developers.
##Script Starts
#read folder to scan and file location to be placed
$whichFolder = Read-Host -Prompt 'Which folder to Scan?'
$whereToPlaceReport = Read-Host -Prompt 'Where to place Report'
$totalFolders = 1
$totalFiles = 0
Write-Host "Process started..."
#IMP separator ? : used as a file in window cannot contain this special character in the file name
#Get Foldernames into Variable for ForEach Loop
$DFSFolders = get-childitem -path $whichFolder | where-object {$_.Psiscontainer -eq "True"} |select-object name ,fullName
#Below Logic for Main Folder
$mainFiles = get-childitem -path "C:\Users\User\Desktop" -file
("Folder Path" + "?" + "Folder Name" + "?" + "File Name " + "?"+ "File Length" )| out-file "$whereToPlaceReport\Report.csv" -Append
#Loop through folders in main Directory
foreach($file in $mainFiles)
{
$totalFiles = $totalFiles + 1
("C:\Users\User\Desktop" + "?" + "Main Folder" + "?"+ $file.name + "?" + $file.length ) | out-file "$whereToPlaceReport\Report.csv" -Append
}
foreach ($DFSfolder in $DFSfolders)
{
#write the folder name in begining
$totalFolders = $totalFolders + 1
write-host " Reading folder C:\Users\User\Desktop\$($DFSfolder.name)"
#$DFSfolder.fullName | out-file "C:\Users\User\Desktop\PoC powershell\ok2.csv" -Append
#For Each Folder obtain objects in a specified directory, recurse then filter for .sft file type, obtain the filename, then group, sort and eventually show the file name and total incidences of it.
$files = get-childitem -path "$whichFolder\$($DFSfolder.name)" -recurse
foreach($file in $files)
{
$totalFiles = $totalFiles + 1
($DFSfolder.fullName + "?" + $DFSfolder.name + "?"+ $file.name + "?" + $file.length ) | out-file "$whereToPlaceReport\Report.csv" -Append
}
}
# If running in the console, wait for input before closing.
if ($Host.Name -eq "ConsoleHost")
{
Write-Host ""
Write-Host ""
Write-Host ""
Write-Host " **Summary**" -ForegroundColor Red
Write-Host " ------------" -ForegroundColor Red
Write-Host " Total Folders Scanned = $totalFolders " -ForegroundColor Green
Write-Host " Total Files Scanned = $totalFiles " -ForegroundColor Green
Write-Host ""
Write-Host ""
Write-Host "I have done my Job,Press any key to exit" -ForegroundColor white
$Host.UI.RawUI.FlushInputBuffer() # Make sure buffered input doesn't "press a key" and skip the ReadKey().
$Host.UI.RawUI.ReadKey("NoEcho,IncludeKeyUp") > $null
}
##Output
##Bat Code to run above powershell command
#ECHO OFF
SET ThisScriptsDirectory=%~dp0
SET PowerShellScriptPath=%ThisScriptsDirectory%MyPowerShellScript.ps1
PowerShell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "& {Start-Process PowerShell -ArgumentList '-NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File ""%PowerShellScriptPath%""' -Verb RunAs}";
A bit late, but try this one.
function Set-Files($Path) {
if(Test-Path $Path -PathType Leaf) {
# Do any logic on file
Write-Host $Path
return
}
if(Test-Path $path -PathType Container) {
# Do any logic on folder use exclude on get-childitem
# cycle again
Get-ChildItem -Path $path | foreach { Set-Files -Path $_.FullName }
}
}
# call
Set-Files -Path 'D:\myFolder'
Commenting here as this seems to be the most popular answer on the subject for searching for files whilst excluding certain directories in powershell.
To avoid issues with post filtering of results (i.e. avoiding permission issues etc), I only needed to filter out top level directories and that is all this example is based on, so whilst this example doesn't filter child directory names, it could very easily be made recursive to support this, if you were so inclined.
Quick breakdown of how the snippet works
$folders << Uses Get-Childitem to query the file system and perform folder exclusion
$file << The pattern of the file I am looking for
foreach << Iterates the $folders variable performing a recursive search using the Get-Childitem command
$folders = Get-ChildItem -Path C:\ -Directory -Name -Exclude Folder1,"Folder 2"
$file = "*filenametosearchfor*.extension"
foreach ($folder in $folders) {
Get-Childitem -Path "C:/$folder" -Recurse -Filter $file | ForEach-Object { Write-Output $_.FullName }
}
If I have an example function ...
function foo()
{
# get a list of files matched pattern and timestamp
$fs = Get-Item -Path "C:\Temp\*.txt"
| Where-Object {$_.lastwritetime -gt "11/01/2009"}
if ( $fs -ne $null ) # $fs may be empty, check it first
{
foreach ($o in $fs)
{
# new bak file
$fBack = "C:\Temp\test\" + $o.Name + ".bak"
# Exception here Get-Item! See following msg
# Exception thrown only Get-Item cannot find any files this time.
# If there is any matched file there, it is OK
$fs1 = Get-Item -Path $fBack
....
}
}
}
The exception message is ... The WriteObject and WriteError methods cannot be called after the pipeline has been closed. Please contact Microsoft Support Services.
Basically, I cannot use Get-Item again within the function or loop to get a list of files in a different folder.
Any explanation and what is the correct way to fix it?
By the way I am using PS 1.0.
This is just a minor variation of what has already been suggested, but it uses some techniques that make the code a bit simpler ...
function foo()
{
# Get a list of files matched pattern and timestamp
$fs = #(Get-Item C:\Temp\*.txt | Where {$_.lastwritetime -gt "11/01/2009"})
foreach ($o in $fs) {
# new bak file
$fBack = "C:\Temp\test\$($o.Name).bak"
if (!(Test-Path $fBack))
{
Copy-Item $fs.Fullname $fBack
}
$fs1 = Get-Item -Path $fBack
....
}
}
For more info on the issue with foreach and scalar null values check out this blog post.
I modified the above code slightly to create the backup file, but I am able to use the Get-Item within the loop successfully, with no exceptions being thrown. My code is:
function foo()
{
# get a list of files matched pattern and timestamp
$files = Get-Item -Path "C:\Temp\*.*" | Where-Object {$_.lastwritetime -gt "11/01/2009"}
foreach ($file in $files)
{
$fileBackup = [string]::Format("{0}{1}{2}", "C:\Temp\Test\", $file.Name , ".bak")
Copy-Item $file.FullName -destination $fileBackup
# Test that backup file exists
if (!(Test-Path $fileBackup))
{
Write-Host "$fileBackup does not exist!"
}
else
{
$fs1 = Get-Item -Path $fileBackup
...
}
}
}
I am also using PowerShell 1.0.