How to get a list of files into a Powershell array

Question

I want to get a list of files into a Powershell variable that I can use in subsequent code.

Files: file1.csv file2.csv

   $sourceFiles = Get-ChildItem .\file*.csv

But the output that I get is:

Mode                 LastWriteTime         Length Name                                                                       
----                 -------------         ------ ----                                                                       
-a----         4/10/2022   1:52 AM             31 file1.csv                                                                  
-a----         4/10/2022   1:52 AM             31 file2.csv  

I am trying to get the output $sourceFiles = "file1.csv","file2.csv"

How is the best way to do this?

Answer 1

You should add -Name to the Get-ChildItem command.

$sourceFiles = Get-ChildItem .\file*.csv -Name
Write-Host $sourceFiles

According with documentation -Name does the job.

Gets only the names of the items in the location. The output is a string object that can be sent down the pipeline to other commands. Wildcards are permitted.

Answer 2

I'm in need of this these days, and I ended up writing a PowerShell script:

$InputFolder = $args[0]
$OutputFile = $args[1]
$BinStream = [System.IO.FileStream]::new($OutputFile,[System.IO.FileMode]::OpenOrCreate)
$BinWriter = [System.IO.BinaryWriter]::new($BinStream)
$InputFolder
    | Get-ChildItem
    | Sort-Object -Property LastWriteTime
    | ForEach-Object {
        $Data = $_ | Get-Content -AsByteStream -Raw
        $BinWriter.Write($Data)
        }
$BinWriter.Close()

You can sort by a different object property, maybe datetime of creation, LastWriteTime just happens to be the one that I needed. The reason I cannot sort by name is that my file names do not have the index suffix padded with zeros.

There's probably a more straight-forward way, without diving into .NET classes, but I don't have much of a PowerShell skill, so whatever I put together to satisfy my immediate need is a result of quick googling and browsing through PowerShell reference online.