Using xp_cmdshell to view the time of the latest folder created

Question

Hi,

There is a folder in the drive.

Using xp_cmdshell I want to view the timing of the latest folder created. How to know the timing of the folder created?

This Timing I have to assign to a variable.

Answer 1

0

Doing this with xp_cmdshell is not the best way to do this.(Powershell, SSIS, C# and many other languages/tools can do this much better).

Saying that, you can still do it! You would proceed as follows:

-- Variable you want to assign the date to
DECLARE @creationdate datetime

-- Create a temp table to store the results of xp_cmdshell 
-- (I'm going with varchar(8000) as you don't mention SQL Server version)
CREATE TABLE #results (Col1 varchar(8000))

-- Insert the results into the temp table
INSERT #results
        (Col1)
-- dir with the options /TC will show creation date
--/0-D will sort them by date descending
EXEC master.dbo.xp_cmdshell 'dir c:\Temp\ /TC /O-D' 

-- Select the first entry that you find that refers to a directory
SELECT TOP 1 @creationdate = LEFT(Col1,20) FROM #results R WHERE col1 LIKE '%<DIR>%'
SELECT @creationdate

answered Oct 11 '10 at 12:52 AM

WilliamD
25.3k ● 16 ● 18 ● 41

Thx for your anS William

Now the data in the table is in below format :-

10/11/2010 03:45 PM 1,212,928 name of the file .ext

From this above row i just want the Timing to be extravted :- ie 03:45 AM .

Kindly suggest

Oct 11 '10 at 01:09 AM mandara

There is nothing like trying yourself! Just put a RIGHT() around the LEFT() command to grab what you want:

SELECT TOP 1 @creationdate = RIGHT(LEFT(Col1,20),8) FROM #results R WHERE col1 LIKE '%<DIR>%'

That should get you what you want

Oct 11 '10 at 01:13 AM WilliamD

Thx Willaim, Its done.

Oct 11 '10 at 01:54 AM mandara

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Using xp_cmdshell to view the time of the latest folder created

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