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PowerShell script to find files newer or equal than a specified date containing a text string.

By Johan van Soest.

Published : 2017-03-02.

Last updated : 2017-05-02.

This PowerShell script finds files newer or equal than a specified date ($Date) and containing a search string ($SearchStr) in the specified file path ($FilePath). It replaces the ForFiles and FindStr command line or batch commands as they cannot handle UNC paths.


 ###############################################################################################
 # This PowerShell script finds files newer or equal than $Date and containing a search string 
 # in the specified (UNC) file path.
 #
 # (C)Copyrights 2016 - 2024 vanSoest.it by J.P.G. van Soest
 ###############################################################################################

 # Fill in the date 
 $Date = "2016-09-12"

 #Fill in the search string
 $SearchStr = "HP LaserJet 4"

 #Fill in the path and mask
 $FilePath = "\\nlaalfs1\temp$\logging\*.txt"
 
 $Files = Get-ChildItem -Path $FilePath | ? {$_.LastWriteTime -ge $Date}
 foreach($File in $Files){
    Select-String $SearchStr $File
 }

This script produces the following (example) output to screen:

 \\nlaalfs1\temp$\logging\2016\09\12-dump.txt:2:HP LaserJet 4P
 \\nlaalfs1\temp$\logging\2016\10\10-dump.txt:14:HP LaserJet 4P
 \\nlaalfs1\temp$\logging\2016\11\14-dump.txt:3:HP LaserJet 4P
 \\nlaalfs1\temp$\logging\2016\12\12-dump.txt:9:HP LaserJet 4P

Of course the tool DateFormat can be used to run the script with variable dates (Begin or End of quarter/month etc.)

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