Too many if else statements - powershell

Question

I am trying to check if a string "03-22-2019" exists (or not and show the result in output) the file is of ".sql" or ".txt" .
execution\development\process.sql
insert.sql
production\logs.txt
restore.sql
rebuild.txt
I am trying below code but I did with too many if else. The above file path stored in the $paths variable. I need to split the path with "\" and get the last part of the path to do something else.
if ($paths -like "*.sql") {
if ($paths.Contains("\")) {
$last = $paths.Split("\")[-1] #get the last part of the path
$result = "03-22-2019" #get this date from some where else
if ($result) {
#check if pattern string exists in that file.
$SEL = Select-String -Path <path location> -Pattern $result
if ($SEL -ne $null) {
Write-Host "`n $last Contains Matching date "
} else {
Write-Host "`n $last Does not Contains date"
}
} else {
Write-Host "`ndate field is blank"
}
} else {
$result = "03-22-2019" #get this date from some where else
if ($result) {
#check if pattern string exists in that file.
$SEL = Select-String -Path <path location> -Pattern $result
if ($SEL -ne $null) {
Write-Host "`n $last Contains Matching date "
} else {
Write-Host "`n $last Does not Contains date"
}
} else {
Write-Host "`ndate field is blank"
}
}
} elseIf ($paths -like "*.txt") {
if ($paths.Contains("\")) {
$last = $paths.Split("\")[-1] #get the last part of the path
$result = "03-22-2019" #get this date from some where else
if ($result) {
#check if pattern string exists in that file.
$SEL = Select-String -Path <path location> -Pattern $result
if ($SEL -ne $null) {
Write-Host "`n $last Contains Matching date "
} else {
Write-Host "`n $last Does not Contains date"
}
} else {
Write-Host "`ndate field is blank"
}
} else {
$result = "03-22-2019" #get this date from some where else
if ($result) {
#check if pattern string exists in that file.
$SEL = Select-String -Path <path location> -Pattern $result
if ($SEL -ne $null) {
Write-Host "`n $last Contains Matching date "
} else {
Write-Host "`n $last Does not Contains date"
}
} else {
Write-Host "`ndate field is blank"
}
}
} else {
Write-Host "other file types"
}

Answer 1

I would make this a little simpler, below is an example to determine if a file contains the date:
$paths = #("c:\path1","c:\path2\subdir")
ForEach ($path in $paths) {
$files = Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $path -file -include "*.sql","*.txt"
$last = ($path -split "\\")[-1] # contains the last part of the path
$output = ForEach ($file in $files) {
If (Select-String -path $file -pattern "03-22-2019") {
"$($file.fullname) contains the date."
}
else {
"$($file.fullname) does not contain the date."
}
}
}
$output # outputs whether or not a file has the date string
The outer ForEach loop loops through the paths in $paths. Inside of that loop, you can do what you need to each path $path. I used $last to store the last part of the path in the current iteration. You have not said what to do with that.
The inner ForEach checks each .txt and .sql file for the date text 03-22-2019. $output stores a string indicating whether each .txt and .sql file contains the date string.
If your paths contain the file names, then you can use the following alternatives to grab the file name (last part of the path):
$path | split-path -leaf # inside of the outer ForEach loop
# Or
$file.name # inside of the inner ForEach loop

Answer 2

Looks like you should start with a foreach after your $paths variable like this:
foreach ($path in $paths) {
if ($path -like "*.sql") { #Note the use of one single item in the $paths array you have
$last = $path.split("\")[-1]
$result = #Whatever method you want to use to return a DateTime object
if ($result) { #### Now, this line doesn't make any sense. Do you want to compare a date to an older date or something? Maybe something like "if ($result -ge (Get-Date).addDays(-1) )
{ # Do your stuff }
Doing something like:
if ($paths -like "*.sql")
Doesn't work because $paths is an array and you are making a string comparison and never the two shall meet. Now, if you are trying to find if a string is inside a file, you should use something like "Get-Content" or "Import-Csv"
You can use the "Get-Date" cmdlet to get many different formats for the date. Read about that here. If you are trying to compare multiple dates against multiple files, I would start with a for loop on the files like I did up there, and then a for loop on each file for an array of dates. Maybe something like this:
foreach ($path in $paths) {
foreach ($date in $dates) {
# Get the contents of a file and store it in a variable
# Search for the string in that variable and store the results in a variable
# Write to the console
} # End foreach ($date in $dates)
} # End foreach ($path in $paths)
Post some more updated code and let's see what you come up with.