Use Split-Path Command in PowerShell

Split-Path is to retrieve the part of the specified path, such as a parent folder, a subfolder, or a file name. It can also tell if the path is relative or absolute.

This command supports a few parameters which help to retrieve the part of the specified path. Consider we have below executable file path and we will see how the Split-Path command will retrieve the parent folder and subfolder as well as the root directory.

'C:\Temp\PsExec.exe'

Default Split-Path command will retrieve the parent folder name of the file.

PS C:\> Split-Path 'C:\Temp\PsExec.exe'
C:\Temp

Here the default parameter is -Parent, which retrieves the parent folder path. Above command is similar to,

PS C:\> Split-Path 'C:\Temp\PsExec.exe' -Parent
C:\Temp

If you need only file name then use the -Leaf parameter.

PS C:\> Split-Path 'C:\Temp\PsExec.exe' -Leaf
PsExec.exe

To retrieve the root directory, you need to use the -Qualifier parameter.

PS C:\> Split-Path 'C:\Temp\PsExec.exe' -Qualifier
C:

If you want to check if the path is absolute or relative then use the -IsAbsolute Parameter.

PS C:\> Split-Path 'C:\Temp\PsExec.exe' -IsAbsolute
True

PS C:\Temp> Split-Path .\PsExec.exe -IsAbsolute
False

Now, let say you want the file names inside the folder so if we write below command that won’t give the desired output.

Output

PS C:\> Split-Path C:\Scripts\* -Leaf
*

The output is * only and the command didn’t retrieve the files/folders name. To solve this issue, -Resolve parameter is used.

Split-Path C:\scripts\* -Leaf -Resolve

Output

DSCTest
Lab01
MyModules
VS_Installation
DscTest.ps1
Servers.txt

You can see the files and folder names. Similarly, if you want to retrieve the specific extension files, you can use both the parameters -Leaf and -Resolve.

PS C:\> Split-Path C:\scripts\*.ps1 -Leaf -Resolve
DscTest.ps1

Similarly, you can apply Split-Path command for the registry.

Split-Path 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control Panel\'
HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer

Split-Path 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control Panel\' -Qualifier
HKCU:

Split-Path 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control Panel\' -Leaf
Control Panel