Simple PowerShell LastWriteTime compare

Question

I need a PowerShell script that can access a file's properties and discover the LastWriteTime property and compare it with the current date and return the date difference.

I have something like this...

$writedate = Get-ItemProperty -Path $source -Name LastWriteTime 

...but I can not cast the LastWriteTime to a "DateTime" datatype. It says, "Cannot convert "@{LastWriteTime=...date...}" to "System.DateTime".

Answer 1

Try the following.

$d = [datetime](Get-ItemProperty -Path $source -Name LastWriteTime).lastwritetime 

This is part of the item property weirdness. When you run Get-ItemProperty it does not return the value but instead the property. You have to use one more level of indirection to get to the value.

Answer 2

(ls $source).LastWriteTime 

("ls", "dir", or "gci" are the default aliases for Get-ChildItem.)