powershell script to get the file size of files in multiple locations

You can run a simple PowerShell script to get the file size of files saved in various locations on a network.

Get-Childitem -file "C:\foofolder\2022.05.31 Fedex Ground.pdf" | select length

Get-Childitem -file "C:\foofolder\Citation\test\XYZ 000400.pdf" | select length

Get-Childitem -file "U:\O'Shea Documents\personal\port st. lucie.heic" | select length

Simply enter the file path in one column of an Excel spreadsheet, with the Get-Childitem -file command in the column to the left, and the | select length operator in the column to the right. Copy the three columns to NotePad and remove the tabs. Enter the script in Windows PowerShell ISE:

It will output the number of bytes in each file. [1924588 equals 1.9 MB]. You can copy the file sizes back into the Excel spreadsheet so they line up with file paths:

Recently, I used this script to get the length of hundreds of Excel files linked to on a spreadsheet for a trial exhibit list that were saved in dozens of different directories, when requested to find if a file was saved on the list under a different Bates number. The closest in size file proved to be a match.

special characters cause batch files to fail

I'm working on a trial right now so my posts will have to be short .

Note that if you use a batch file like the one discussed in the Tip of the Night for July 24, 2020, and the names for the renamed files include any of the special characters:

* . " / \ [ ] : ; | , $ + # % ! @

. . . which cannot be used in the Windows file system, the batch file will fail, and files with those characters will not be copied. To get around this problem, use the PowerShell script described in the Tip of the Night for May 5, 2018.

PowerShell script to run RegEx and Output results

Fidel from Brisbane has posted a very useful PowerShell script here, that you can use to run a regular expression search through a text file and extract only the matching hits.

When used with the RegEx search for Bates numbers discussed last night, it can be used to automatically extract a complete list of Bates numbers in any text file.

So if you start with a text file that looks like this:

. . . with Bates numbers at the end of each paragraph, you can run this PowerShell script:

select-string -Path C:\foofolder\input.txt -Pattern "(\b\w{1,10}(-|_|\s?)[0-9]{5,12}\b|\b\w{1,10}(-|_|\s?)\b\w{1,10}(-|_|\s?)[0-9]{5,12}\b)" -AllMatches | % { $_.Matches } | select-object Value -unique | sort-object Value > C:\foofolder\output2.txt

to pull out the Bates numbers. Note that you need to specify the path of your text file at:

select-string -Path C:\foofolder\input.txt

. . . put in the Regex in quotes at:

-Pattern "(\b\w{1,10}(-|_|\s?)[0-9]{5,12}\b|\b\w{1,10}(-|_|\s?)\b\w{1,10}(-|_|\s?)[0-9]{5,12}\b)" -AllMatches

. . . and then specify an output file at the end:

sort-object Value > C:\foofolder\output2.txt

You should end up with a text file that just lists the Bates numbers and has them sorted as well!