Powershell Get-ChildItem most recent file in directory - powershell

Question

We produce files with date in the name.
(* below is the wildcard for the date)
I want to grab the last file and the folder that contains the file also has a date(month only) in its title.
I am using PowerShell and I am scheduling it to run each day. Here is the script so far:
$LastFile = *_DailyFile
$compareDate = (Get-Date).AddDays(-1)
$LastFileCaptured = Get-ChildItem -Recurse | Where-Object {$LastFile.LastWriteTime
-ge $compareDate}

Answer 1

If you want the latest file in the directory and you are using only the LastWriteTime to determine the latest file, you can do something like below:
gci path | sort LastWriteTime | select -last 1
On the other hand, if you want to only rely on the names that have the dates in them, you should be able to something similar
gci path | select -last 1
Also, if there are directories in the directory, you might want to add a ?{-not $_.PsIsContainer}

Answer 2

Yes I think this would be quicker.
Get-ChildItem $folder | Sort-Object -Descending -Property LastWriteTime -Top 1

Answer 3

Try:
$latest = (Get-ChildItem -Attributes !Directory | Sort-Object -Descending -Property LastWriteTime | select -First 1)
$latest_filename = $latest.Name
Explanation:
PS C:\Temp> Get-ChildItem -Attributes !Directory *.txt | Sort-Object -Descending -Property LastWriteTime | select -First 1
Directory: C:\Temp
Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
---- ------------- ------ ----
-a---- 5/7/2021 5:51 PM 1802 Prison_Mike_autobiography.txt
Get-ChildItem -Attributes !Directory *.txt or Get-ChildItem or gci : Gets list of files ONLY in current directory. We can give a file extension filter too as needed like *.txt. Reference: gci, Get-ChildItem
Sort-Object -Descending -Property LastWriteTime : Sort files by LastWriteTime (modified time) in descending order. Reference
select -First 1 : Gets the first/top record. Reference Select-Object / select
Getting file metadata
PS C:\Temp> $latest.Name
Prison_Mike_autobiography.txt
PS C:\Temp> $latest.DirectoryName
C:\Temp
PS C:\Temp> $latest.FullName
C:\Temp\Prison_Mike_autobiography.txt
PS C:\Temp> $latest.CreationTime
Friday, May 7, 2021 5:51:19 PM
PS C:\Temp> $latest.Mode
-a----

Answer 4

#manojlds's answer is probably the best for the scenario where you are only interested in files within a root directory:
\path
\file1
\file2
\file3
However, if the files you are interested are part of a tree of files and directories, such as:
\path
\file1
\file2
\dir1
\file3
\dir2
\file4
To find, recursively, the list of the 10 most recently modified files in Windows, you can run:
PS > $Path = pwd # your root directory
PS > $ChildItems = Get-ChildItem $Path -Recurse -File
PS > $ChildItems | Sort-Object LastWriteTime -Descending | Select-Object -First 10 FullName, LastWriteTime

Answer 5

You could try to sort descending "sort LastWriteTime -Descending" and then "select -first 1." Not sure which one is faster