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 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 🙂

marco69

Copper Contributor

Dec 12, 2022

I forgot one important point: I have to overwrite only if the file is newer...
how can I modify the script to do that?
thank you and excuse me for this missing

Harm_Veenstra

MVP

Dec 12, 2022

marco69 Changed it to also check for that:

$sourcepath = 'C:\MyPath'
$destinationpath = 'C:\DestPath\myfolder1'
foreach ($folder in Get-ChildItem -Path $sourcepath -Directory | Sort-Object Name) {
    try {
        Test-Path "$($folder.fullname)\myfolder1" -ErrorAction Stop | Out-Null
        foreach ($file in Get-ChildItem -Path "$($folder.fullname)\myfolder1" -File) {
            if (Test-Path -Path "$($destinationpath)\$($file.name)") {
                $destinationfile = Get-ChildItem -Path "$($destinationpath)\$($file.Name)"
                if ($file.LastWriteTime -gt $destinationfile.LastWriteTime) {
                    Copy-Item "$($folder.fullname)\myfolder1\$($file.Name)" -Destination $destinationpath -Force:$true -Confirm:$false -ErrorAction Stop
                    Write-Host ("Processing {0} in {1} and overwriting old version" -f $file.name, $folder.fullname) -ForegroundColor Green
                }
                else {
                    Write-Host ("File {0} from {1} already present in {2}, no change needed" -f $file.Name, $folder.Name, $destinationpath) -ForegroundColor Green
                }
            }
            else {
                Copy-Item "$($folder.fullname)\myfolder1\$($file.name)" -Destination $destinationpath -ErrorAction Stop
                Write-Host ("Copying new file {0} from {1} to {2}" -f $file.name, $folder.fullname, $destinationpath) -ForegroundColor Green
            }   
        }
    }
    catch {
        Write-Warning ("Folder myfolder1 not found in {0} or not enough permissions" -f $folder.FullName)
    }
}

But... Are there multiple directories in c:\mypath\xxxxx\myfolder1? This script copies files from one directory to another, is that enough?