PowerShell: list files by wildcard name pattern

Filter File Name by Wildcard (-filter)

-filter parameter takes a Wildcards pattern to show only those files. Useful if you want to list files of a specific filename extension.

You cannot use the filter parameter to filter multiple filename extensions.

# list jpg files
dir -recurse -file -filter *.jpg

# list emacs backup files (file name ending in ~)
dir -recurse -file -filter *~

Filter File Name by Multiple File Extensions

You can use -include or -exclude with Wildcards to filter out files by multiple file name extensions. e.g. -include *.jpg,*.png

the Exclude parameter is applied after the Include parameter.

• 🛑 WARNING: when you use -include or -exclude, you must list by dir content, e.g. dir * or with -recurse
• 🟢 TIP: -include or -exclude is MUCH slower than using -filter

-include

dir -recurse -file -include *.jpg,*.jpeg
# or
dir -recurse -file -include "*.jpg","*.jpeg"

-exclude

dir -recurse -file -exclude *.jpg,*.jpeg

Filter File Name by Regular Expression

• PowerShell: filter file name by regular expression