How to properly -filter multiple strings in a PowerShell copy script

Question

I am using the PowerShell script from this answer to do a file copy  The problem arises when I want to include multiple file types using the filter    Get-ChildItem  originalPath -filter    htm          foreach   targetFile    htmPath      FullName SubString  originalPath Length       New-Item -ItemType File -Path  targetFile -Force      Copy-Item    FullName -destination  targetFile     works like a dream  However  The problem arises when I want to include multiple file types using the filter    Get-ChildItem  originalPath      -filter    gif     jpg     xls      doc      pdf      wav     ppt            foreach   targetFile    htmPath      FullName SubString  originalPath Length       New-Item -ItemType File -Path  targetFile -Force      Copy-Item    FullName -destination  targetFile     Gives me the following error   Get-ChildItem   Cannot convert  System Object    to the type  System String  required by parameter  Filter   Specified method is not supported  At F  data foo CGM ps1 121 char 36   Get-ChildItem  originalPath -filter  lt  lt  lt  lt      gif     jpg     xls      doc      pdf      wav     ppt             CategoryInfo            InvalidArgument       Get-ChildItem   ParameterBindingException       FullyQualifiedErrorId   CannotConvertArgument Microsoft PowerShell Commands GetChildItemCommand   I have various iterations of parentheses  no parentheses  -filter  -include  defining the inclusions as variable  e g    fileFilter  and each time get the above error  and always pointing to whatever follows -filter   The interesting exception to that is when I code -filter    gif   jpg   xls    doc    pdf    wav    ppt    There are no errors  but I and get no results and nothing back to the console  I suspect I ve inadvertently coded an impicit and with that statement   So what am I doing wrong  and how can I correct it

User · Answer

use the include is the easiest way as per  http   www vistax64 com powershell 168315-get-childitem-filter-files-multiple-extensions html

User · Answer

Something like this should work  it did for me    The reason for wanting to use -Filter instead of -Include is that include takes a huge performance hit compared to -Filter   Below just loops each file type and multiple servers workstations specified in separate files            This script will pull from a list of workstations in a text file and search for the specified string      Change the file path below to where your list of target workstations reside    Change the file path below to where your list of filetypes reside   filetypes   gc  pathToListOffiletypes txt   servers   gc  pathToListOfWorkstations txt     Set the scope of the variable so it has visibility set-variable -Name searchString -Scope 0  searchString    whatYouAreSearchingFor   foreach   server in  servers             foreach   filetype in  filetypes                below creates the search path   This could be further improved to exclude the windows directory      serverString         server   c  Program Files           Display the server being queried     write-host    Server      server  searching for    filetype in  serverString      Get-ChildItem -Path  serverString -Recurse -Filter  filetype        -Include    xml     ps1     cnf     odf     conf     bat     cfg     ini     config     info     nfo     txt        Select-String -pattern  searchstring   group path   select name   out-file f  DataCentre String Results txt       os   gwmi win32 operatingsystem -computer  server      sp    os         servicepackmajorversion       a    os         caption           Below will list again the server name as well as its OS and SP         Because the script may not be monitored  this helps confirm the machine has been successfully scanned         write-host  server    has completed its    filetype  scan                OS      a    SP              sp             end script

User · Answer

-Filter only accepts a single string  -Include accepts multiple values  but qualifies the -Path argument  The trick is to append    to the end of the path  and then use -Include to select multiple extensions  BTW  quoting strings is unnecessary in cmdlet arguments unless they contain spaces or shell special characters   Get-ChildItem  originalPath   -Include   gif    jpg    xls     doc     pdf     wav    ppt    Note that this will work regardless of whether  originalPath ends in a backslash  because multiple consecutive backslashes are interpreted as a single path separator  For example  try   Get-ChildItem C      Windows

User · Answer

Get-ChildItem  originalPath   -Include      gif      jpg      xls       doc       pdf       wav       ppt

[powershell] How to properly -filter multiple strings in a PowerShell copy script

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