How to get specific files using Get-ChildItem

Question

I am trying to get all files with today's date in the file name. However, when I run this, I get the following error:

#Share location
$source = "U:\Data\*"
#Sharepoint file location
$prefix = "file_name_"

#Date Info
$date = get-date -uformat "%Y-%m-%d" | Out-String

$file = $prefix + $date 

Get-ChildItem -File -path $source -Filter $file*

Get-ChildItem : Illegal characters in path. At line:2 char:1 + Get-ChildItem -File -path $source -Filter $file*

Any help would be appreciated. I am using $file* in the filter because the file extension could be different.

Answer 1

Your problem is the use of | Out-String which is not only unnecessary in your case, but appends a trailing newline, which is the cause of the problem.

Use just:

$date = get-date -uformat "%Y-%m-%d"  # Do NOT use ... | Out-String

get-date -uformat "%Y-%m-%d" directly returns a [string].

---

Optional troubleshooting tips:

To verify that get-date -uformat "%Y-%m-%d" outputs a [string] instance:

PS> (get-date -uformat "%Y-%m-%d").GetType().FullName
System.String

To verify that ... | Out-String appends a newline:

PS> (get-date -uformat "%Y-%m-%d" | Out-String).EndsWith("`n")
True