Copy only file that matches variable string

Question

I'm trying to copy files based on the hour of Get-Date's time stamp to match it to files that are saved from a different source in a filename_10_00.ext structure. If I use 24 hour time, I can use the hour of Get-Date to determine which file I'm looking for. (This is to run hourly backups)

This is what I have:

$current_time = Get-Date
$hour_var = $current_time.Hour
Get-ChildItem -Path \\Path\To\Source | Where-Object {
    $_.Name -match "$hour_var"
} | Copy-Item -Destination \\Path\To\Destination

Can somebody tell me why it can't seem to match based on the PowerShell I've provided?

I am looking for pure PowerShell with ideally no imported modules.

Please show sample output of Get-ChildItem -Path \\Path\To\Source as well as the desired and actual output of Get-ChildItem -Path \\Path\To\Source | Where-Object {$_.Name -match "$hour_var"}. — Ansgar Wiechers
– Ansgar Wiechers, Commented Mar 2, 2017 at 0:16
Unfortunately, there is no sample output. The desired output would be that it uses $hour_var as a regular expression to scan all files for the "filename_hh_mm_ss.ext" to compare the returned hour from $hour_var with the hour in hh from the filename. — Tristan V
– Tristan V, Commented Mar 2, 2017 at 18:31
If Get-ChildItem -Path \\Path\To\Source doesn't produce any output, why are you surprised that nothing is being copied? — Ansgar Wiechers
– Ansgar Wiechers, Commented Mar 2, 2017 at 18:33
My apologies. I misunderstood the output of Get-ChildItem -Path \\Path\To\Source as the output of the copy. I can see the files in that folder when I Write-host $test after I assign the Get-ChildItem command to $test — Tristan V
– Tristan V, Commented Mar 2, 2017 at 21:13

score 1 · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-02 21:36:12Z

1

Assuming leading zeroes in the hour format try this:

$Src = "\\Path\To\Source"
$Dst = "\\Path\To\Destination"

$CurrHour = (Get-Date).Hour.ToString('00')
Get-ChildItem -Path $Src *_??_??.ext | 
  Where-Object BaseName -match "^.*_$CurrHour_\d{2}$" | 
    Copy-Item -Destination $Dst -whatif

If output looks OK remove the -whatif

edited Mar 2, 2017 at 21:36

answered Mar 2, 2017 at 0:36

user6811411

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5 Comments

Tristan V Over a year ago

Using this example doesn't seem to yield any output on -whatif and removing the -whatif doesn't seem to copy anything. I've revised it with the actual source and destination path along with file extension to give a more accurate example. Src and Dts are shared folders on the PC and I'm running as admin. $Src = "\\WIN-F4GLTG2LGVN\Source" $Dst = "\\WIN-F4GLTG2LGVN\Destination" $CurrHour = (Get-Date).Hour.ToString('00')

Get-ChildItem -Path $Src filename_??_??.txt |    Where-Object BaseName -match "^filename_$CurrHour_\d{2}$" |      Copy-Item -Destination $Dst -whatif

user6811411 Over a year ago

Did you adapt the pseudo filename to fit your environment?

Tristan V Over a year ago

I didn't but I was more concerned that shared folders might be causes issues than the filenames so I wanted them to be more strict. For testing purposes, filename_12_00.txt would be a legitimate example.

user6811411 Over a year ago

Changed above to be less restrictive it uses a wildcard *._??_??.ext to filter filenames in the gci and a pattern "^.*_$CurrHour_\d{2}$" to match on the hour. This worked in my local tests.

Tristan V Over a year ago

Works great. Thanks for your time!

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