Forum Discussion

Copper Contributor

Dec 07, 2022

Solved

.ps1 script: how to loop in a range of dates

Hi all, I have to copy the content of the folders: C:\mypath\YYYYDDMM\myfolder1 into one folder destination. And: YYYYMMDD is from 20140101 to 20211231 I'm struggling to find a way t...

Windows PowerShell

Harm_Veenstra

Dec 12, 2022

Just tested this script, this works:

foreach ($folder in Get-ChildItem -Path c:\mypath -Directory | Sort-Object Name) {
    try {
        Test-Path "$($folder.fullname)\myfolder1" -ErrorAction Stop | Out-Null
        Copy-Item "$($folder.fullname)\myfolder1" -Recurse -Destination C:\destpath\myfolder1 -Force:$true -Confirm:$false -ErrorAction Stop
        Write-Host ("Processing {0}" -f $folder.fullname) -ForegroundColor Green
    }
    catch {
        Write-Warning ("Folder myfolder1 not found in {0} or not enough permissions" -f $folder.FullName)
    }
}

Source directory:

Destination directory:

It will check permissions and copy if it has permissions and will overwrite if the file is already present, it will show a warning if the folder1 folder was not found in a directory.

You can test it for yourself with a test directory structure 🙂

Harm_Veenstra

MVP

Dec 08, 2022

If all myfolder1 folders are in the base of YYYYDDMM in the c:\mypath folders... Then you could just get a list of folders and loop through them if the myfolder1 folder is found, then copy all items to the one folder destination.

foreach ($folder in Get-ChildItem -Path c:\mypath -Directory) {
if (test-path $folder.fullname\myfolder1) {
copy-item -path $folder.fullname\myfolder1 -Recurse -destination c:\mypath\folder destination
}
}

something like that?

marco69

Copper Contributor

Dec 12, 2022

Hi Harm_Veenstra!

I have this situation:

C:\mypath\20220421\myfolder1
C:\mypath\20220422\myfolder1
C:\mypath\20220425\myfolder1
C:\mypath\20220511\myfolder1
....
C:\mypath\20220718\myfolder1
C:\mypath\20220723\myfolder1
...
C:\mypath\20221212\myfolder1

starting from the very first folder (the oldest, in the example above is the folder at 21Apr2022) I have to copy the content of myfolder1 to a destination directory, for example:

c:\destpath\myfolder1

Then:

copy C:\mypath\20220421\myfolder1\* -> c:\destpath\myfolder1\*
copy C:\mypath\20220422\myfolder1\* -> c:\destpath\myfolder1\*
copy C:\mypath\20220425\myfolder1\* -> c:\destpath\myfolder1\*
...
copy C:\mypath\20221212\myfolder1\* -> c:\destpath\myfolder1\*

For info, just to better clarify, when copying I have to overwrite a file if it already exists and normally copy if it's new.

mf

Harm_Veenstra
MVP
Dec 12, 2022
Just tested this script, this works:
foreach ($folder in Get-ChildItem -Path c:\mypath -Directory | Sort-Object Name) { try { Test-Path "$($folder.fullname)\myfolder1" -ErrorAction Stop | Out-Null Copy-Item "$($folder.fullname)\myfolder1" -Recurse -Destination C:\destpath\myfolder1 -Force:$true -Confirm:$false -ErrorAction Stop Write-Host ("Processing {0}" -f $folder.fullname) -ForegroundColor Green } catch { Write-Warning ("Folder myfolder1 not found in {0} or not enough permissions" -f $folder.FullName) } }

Source directory:

Destination directory:

It will check permissions and copy if it has permissions and will overwrite if the file is already present, it will show a warning if the folder1 folder was not found in a directory.

You can test it for yourself with a test directory structure 🙂
- marco69
  Copper Contributor
  Dec 12, 2022
  You are my Hero!!!!
  many many many thanks!!!!
  - Harm_Veenstra
    MVP
    Dec 12, 2022
    Let us know if it works out for you, please mark my answer as best response to mark it as solved if it did 🙂