LastWriteTime vs LastWriteTime.Year

PowerShell Help
1

This is a (really) basic question… I have only just learnt to spell PowerShell.
It is a fundamental that is tripping me up… will seem like a simple matter, and I am looking more towards a conceptual answer.

“gci -file ! select Fullname, LastWriteTime | ft” will return the full filespec and the last modified date and time.

“gci -file ! select Fullname, LastWriteTime.year | ft” will return the full filespec and nothing else.

…but I can use LastWriteTime.year successfully in a script to give me the year a file was last updated.
What am I missing? (told you it was basic!)

2

Not 100% but Select-Object can only query properties (LastWriteTime) of a supplied object and not nested object properties. LastWriteTime is also an object with properties

1 Like
3

You can either extract the year as you were (the more basic approach) or you can use a feature called calculated properties. Looks something like this
gci | select FullName, @{name="LastWriteYear";e={$_.LastWriteTime.year}

2 Likes
4

Thanks neemobeer (like the name)… and it works… but I’m not getting the concept of “nested object properties”.

The answer is good… I will keep it in mind as I get more experience and (hopefully) these concept pieces will fall into place. I will also play with “calculated properties” as a way to convince select that I am giving it what it wants/needs.

Cheers