How to search for a specific extension using Get-ChildItem in PowerShell?

To get the output of the get-childitem with a specific extension, we need to use –includeparameter.

Example

In the below example, we will use the below script to get only .xml files.

Get-ChildItem D:\Temp\ -Recurse -Include *.xml

Output

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-ChildItem D:\Temp\ -Recurse -Include *.xml     Directory: D:\Temp\GPO_backup\{C9C3DB4C-2E51-4201-B3C3-7C0F1ACECBE9} Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name ----                -------------         ------ ---- -a----       24-11-2018     11:34           6215 Backup.xml -a----       24-11-2018     11:34            602 Bkupinfo.xml     Directory: D:\Temp Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name ----                -------------         ------ ---- -a----       07-05-2018     23:00            301 cars.xml

You can filter multiple extensions with include parameter and for that, you need to add a comma (,) between extensions.

Example

For example, we will get the output here with file extensions xml and csv.

Get-ChildItem D:\Temp\ -Recurse -Include *.xml, *.csv

Output

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-ChildItem D:\Temp\ -Recurse -Include *.xml, *.csv     Directory: D:\Temp\GPO_backup\{C9C3DB4C-2E51-4201-B3C3-7C0F1ACECBE9}\DomainSysvol\GPO\Machine\microsoft\windows     nt\Audit Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name ----                -------------         ------ ---- -a----       24-11-2018     11:34           6234 audit.csv     Directory: D:\Temp\GPO_backup\{C9C3DB4C-2E51-4201-B3C3-7C0F1ACECBE9} Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name ----                -------------         ------ ---- -a----       24-11-2018     11:34           6215 Backup.xml -a----       24-11-2018     11:34            602 Bkupinfo.xml     Directory: D:\Temp Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name ----                -------------         ------ ---- -a----       07-05-2018     23:00            301 cars.xml -a----       25-10-2017     08:13            104 testcsv.csv