PowerShell: Comparing dates - powershell

Question

I am querying a data source for dates. Depending on the item I am searching for, it may have more than date associated with it.
get-date ($Output | Select-Object -ExpandProperty "Date")
An example of the output looks like:
Monday, April 08, 2013 12:00:00 AM
Friday, April 08, 2011 12:00:00 AM
I would like to compare these dates and return which one is set further out into the future.

Answer 1

As Get-Date returns a DateTime object you are able to compare them directly. An example:
(get-date 2010-01-02) -lt (get-date 2010-01-01)
will return false.

Answer 2

I wanted to show how powerful it can be aside from just checking "-lt".
Example: I used it to calculate time differences take from Windows event view Application log:
Get the difference between the two date times:
PS> $Obj = ((get-date "10/22/2020 12:51:1") - (get-date "10/22/2020 12:20:1 "))
Object created:
PS> $Obj
Days : 0
Hours : 0
Minutes : 31
Seconds : 0
Milliseconds : 0
Ticks : 18600000000
TotalDays : 0.0215277777777778
TotalHours : 0.516666666666667
TotalMinutes : 31
TotalSeconds : 1860
TotalMilliseconds : 1860000
Access an item directly:
PS> $Obj.Minutes
31

Answer 3

Late but more complete answer in point of getting the most advanced date from $Output
## Q:\test\2011\02\SO_5097125.ps1
## simulate object input with a here string
$Output = #"
"Date"
"Monday, April 08, 2013 12:00:00 AM"
"Friday, April 08, 2011 12:00:00 AM"
"# -split '\r?\n' | ConvertFrom-Csv
## use Get-Date and calculated property in a pipeline
$Output | Select-Object #{n='Date';e={Get-Date $_.Date}} |
Sort-Object Date | Select-Object -Last 1 -Expand Date
## use Get-Date in a ForEach-Object
$Output.Date | ForEach-Object{Get-Date $_} |
Sort-Object | Select-Object -Last 1
## use [datetime]::ParseExact
## the following will only work if your locale is English for day, month day abbrev.
$Output.Date | ForEach-Object{
[datetime]::ParseExact($_,'dddd, MMMM dd, yyyy hh:mm:ss tt',$Null)
} | Sort-Object | Select-Object -Last 1
## for non English locales
$Output.Date | ForEach-Object{
[datetime]::ParseExact($_,'dddd, MMMM dd, yyyy hh:mm:ss tt',[cultureinfo]::InvariantCulture)
} | Sort-Object | Select-Object -Last 1
## in case the day month abbreviations are in other languages, here German
## simulate object input with a here string
$Output = #"
"Date"
"Montag, April 08, 2013 00:00:00"
"Freidag, April 08, 2011 00:00:00"
"# -split '\r?\n' | ConvertFrom-Csv
$CIDE = New-Object System.Globalization.CultureInfo("de-DE")
$Output.Date | ForEach-Object{
[datetime]::ParseExact($_,'dddd, MMMM dd, yyyy HH:mm:ss',$CIDE)
} | Sort-Object | Select-Object -Last 1

Answer 4

Considering you want to include time also, I have included sample. I am putting datetime in the ISO8601, so it works in locale agnostic manner.
Monday, April 08, 2013 12:00:00 AM
Friday, April 08, 2011 12:00:00 AM
(Get-date "2013-04-08T00:00:00") -lt (Get-Date "2011-04-08T00:00:00")
False