How do I find the newest file in a directory using a PowerShell script?

Question

If, for example, I have a directory which contains the following files:

Test-20120626-1023.txt
Test-20120626-0710.txt
Test-20120626-2202.txt
Test-20120626-19         


        

Answer 1

If, for some reason, the files creation date is different than the one stamped in the file name then you can parse the file name into a datetime object and sort by expression:

$file = Get-ChildItem | 
Sort-Object { [DateTime]::ParseExact($_.BaseName,'\Te\s\t\-yyyyMMdd\-HHmm',$null) } |
Select-Object -Last 1