How to List Files by Date in PowerShell

Use the Get-ChildItem cmdlet in PowerShell along with Sort-Object to list files by date. You can sort files by creation date, last modified date, or last access date.

The following methods can be used to list files by date in PowerShell.

Method 1: List files sorted by last modified date (newest first)

Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\temp\log" | Sort-Object LastWriteTime -Descending

This example lists all files sorted by last modified date with the newest files first.

Method 2: List files sorted by creation date

Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\temp\log" | Sort-Object CreationTime -Descending

This example lists all files sorted by creation date.

Method 3: List files sorted by last access date

Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\temp\log" | Sort-Object LastAccessTime -Descending

This example lists all files sorted by last access date.

The following examples show how to use these methods.

List Files Sorted by Last Modified Date

To list files sorted by last modified date in PowerShell, you can use the Get-ChildItem cmdlet along with Sort-Object.

The following example shows how to do this with syntax.

# Specify the directory path
$directoryPath = "C:\temp\log"

# List files sorted by last modified date (newest first)
Get-ChildItem -Path $directoryPath | Sort-Object LastWriteTime -Descending

In this PowerShell script, the Get-ChildItem cmdlet retrieves all files from the specified directory. The result is piped to Sort-Object which sorts the files by the LastWriteTime property in descending order (newest first).

List Files Sorted by Creation Date

To sort files by creation date, use the CreationTime property.

# Specify the directory path
$directoryPath = "C:\temp\log"

# List files sorted by creation date (newest first)
Get-ChildItem -Path $directoryPath | Sort-Object CreationTime -Descending

List Files Sorted by Date (Oldest First)

To list files with the oldest first, remove the -Descending parameter.

# Specify the directory path
$directoryPath = "C:\temp\log"

# List files sorted by last modified date (oldest first)
Get-ChildItem -Path $directoryPath | Sort-Object LastWriteTime

List Files Modified After a Specific Date

To list files that were modified after a specific date, you can use the Where-Object cmdlet.

# Specify the directory path
$directoryPath = "C:\temp\log"

# Specify the date
$date = Get-Date "2024-01-01"

# List files modified after the specified date
Get-ChildItem -Path $directoryPath | Where-Object { $_.LastWriteTime -gt $date }

In this example, the Where-Object cmdlet filters the files to show only those that were modified after January 1, 2024.

List Files Modified in the Last 7 Days

To list files that were modified in the last 7 days, you can calculate the date range.

# Specify the directory path
$directoryPath = "C:\temp\log"

# Calculate the date 7 days ago
$dateLimit = (Get-Date).AddDays(-7)

# List files modified in the last 7 days
Get-ChildItem -Path $directoryPath | Where-Object { $_.LastWriteTime -gt $dateLimit }

Conclusion

I hope the above article on listing files by date in PowerShell is helpful to you.

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