PowerShell Get-ChildItem Filter Examples

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To filter files with Get-ChildItem, pass a wildcard pattern to -Filter. Add -Recurse to search subfolders too:

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\psfaqs\Reports -Filter '*.csv' -Recurse |
    Sort-Object -Property FullName |
    ForEach-Object { $_.FullName.Replace('C:\psfaqs\Reports\', '') }

Output:

Archive\sales-2026-01.csv
Q3\draft-summary.csv
Q3\summary.csv
sales-2026-07.csv
sales-2026-08.csv
sales-2026-09.csv
PowerShell Get-ChildItem -Filter *.csv -Recurse
-Filter ‘*.csv’ finds six CSV files across three folders (PowerShell 7)

-Filter is the fastest option because the file system does the matching. Below I compare it with -Include and -Exclude, show a gotcha that returns nothing, and filter by date and size. All of it runs in PowerShell 7.6 and 5.1.

-Filter vs. -Include and -Exclude

ParameterPatternsSpeedNotes
-FilterOneFastestMatching is done by the file system
-IncludeSeveralSlowerNeeds -Recurse or a path ending in \*
-ExcludeSeveralSlowerRemoves matches from the results

Use -Filter for a single pattern. Switch to -Include and -Exclude when you need several patterns or want to leave some files out. Microsoft covers all three in the Get-ChildItem reference.

Why -Include returns nothing

This catches almost everyone. -Include only works when the path ends in \* or you add -Recurse:

$a = Get-ChildItem -Path C:\psfaqs\Reports -Include '*.xlsx'
$b = Get-ChildItem -Path C:\psfaqs\Reports\* -Include '*.xlsx'
$c = Get-ChildItem -Path C:\psfaqs\Reports -Include '*.xlsx' -Recurse

"-Include, plain path:    $(@($a).Count) files"
"-Include, path with \*:  $(@($b).Count) files"
"-Include with -Recurse:  $(@($c).Count) files"

Output:

-Include, plain path:    0 files
-Include, path with \*:  2 files
-Include with -Recurse:  2 files
PowerShell Get-ChildItem -Include needs a wildcard path or -Recurse
The plain path returns 0 files, while \* and -Recurse both find the 2 workbooks (Windows PowerShell 5.1)

Without either one, -Include looks at the folder itself rather than its contents, so nothing matches. -Filter doesn’t have this problem.

Filter several file types and exclude some

-Include takes a list of patterns, and -Exclude drops anything that matches. Here I get CSV and Excel files but skip drafts:

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\psfaqs\Reports -Include '*.csv', '*.xlsx' -Exclude '*draft*' -Recurse |
    Sort-Object -Property Name |
    ForEach-Object { $_.Name }

Output:

budget.xlsx
sales-2026-01.csv
sales-2026-07.csv
sales-2026-08.csv
sales-2026-09.csv
summary.csv

Patterns use * for any characters and ? for one character. about_Wildcards lists the rest, including [a-c] ranges. Finding files by extension has more examples.

Filter by date and size with Where-Object

-Filter only matches names. For dates, sizes and other properties, pipe to Where-Object. This finds files changed since September 1, 2026 that are over 3 KB:

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\psfaqs\Reports -File -Recurse |
    Where-Object { $_.LastWriteTime -ge [datetime]'2026-09-01' -and $_.Length -gt 3KB } |
    Sort-Object -Property LastWriteTime |
    ForEach-Object { '{0,-18} {1:yyyy-MM-dd}  {2,5} bytes' -f $_.Name, $_.LastWriteTime, $_.Length }

Output:

budget.xlsx        2026-09-15   7902 bytes
budget-draft.xlsx  2026-09-22   3102 bytes
draft-summary.csv  2026-09-28   5202 bytes
sales-2026-09.csv  2026-09-29   3102 bytes
PowerShell Get-ChildItem filter by LastWriteTime and size
Four files changed in September 2026 and larger than 3 KB, oldest first (PowerShell 7)

Use -File first so folders don’t get in the way.