Batch File – Get Directory Named with Latest Date

batchbatch-filebatch-processing

I have a directory with many subdirectories. Each subdirectory is named with the yyyy-mm-dd format. I'm writing a Windows batch file and I need to grab the directory name with the most recent date and put that string into a variable. The last modified dates were changed, so using the last modified timestamp isn't an option.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Best Answer

for /f %%d in ('dir /ad /o-n /b .') do (
  echo %%d
  goto break
)
:break

/ad - Displays files with specified attributes. (D: Directories)
/o-n List by files in sorted order. (n: By name (alphabetic), -n: Prefix to - reverse order)
/b Uses bare format (no heading information or summary).
goto break - jump out the loop to take only first

/o-d List by files in sorted order. (d: By date/time (oldest first), -d: Prefix to - reverse order)

Related Solutions

Windows – Change current directory to the batch file directory

Ok, I think I found here what you mean with %~dp.

I think what you really want to do is this:

cd /D "%~dp0"

~~(!) But note that this will still not give you the right behaviour when you're trying to execute your batch while the current directory is on another drive as cd doesn't change the active drive.~~

Edit: Apparently (thanks @Yoopergeek) you can add the /D parameter to the cd command to let it also change the active drive.

Windows – using xcopy or copy to back up files

Robocopy is your friend in this. It has a flag that'll do exactly what you want.

robocopy c:\ f:\ /mir /r:1 /sec

That'll do a mirror copy, retrying open files once before moving on, and will also copy security. The mirror copy will also remove files from F:\ that no longer exist on C:\, which is something xcopy can't do. Also, after the first sync it'll only copy newer files.

If robocopy isn't a possibility for some reason, you can get kind of close with xcopy.

xcopy C:\*.* F:\*.* /S/E/H/D

That'll copy the entire C:\ structure to F:\, copy hidden files, and only copy newer ones. It won't remove files from F:\ that exist in C:\ though.

Edit:

Perhaps this'll do what you want:

 for /D %D in (C:\User*\) do xcopy  C:\User%D\*.* F:\User%D /s /e /d 08-01-2010

That'll iterate over all directories with User in them, and copy files newer than the first of August.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Windows – Change current directory to the batch file directory

Windows – using xcopy or copy to back up files

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