Best way to find latest file having filename pattern?

Automise Discussion
1

I have several action lists that start by finding files with a certain pattern (like ‘FilePatternYYYYMMDD.csv’, where YYYYMMDD is the date when the file was created). I want to work with the latest file. I have been creating a fileset based on the pattern and sorting it by filename…but I am not sure of the most efficient way to get the first (or last, depending on sort) filename in the list. I just iterate through, and grab the first (or last) file in the iteration for the variable I want, but it seems like there should be an easier way to just grab the one filename I need.

Would using FileSet to Variable help at all? That would create a text list - could I easily get the first item in a variable list without an iterator? Or is there a way to “break out” of the iteration once I have the file I need?

2

Hi Jonathan

You can use the Exit Loop action to break out of the iterator loop.

3

So the idea would be to sort descending (to grab the latest file first), and as soon as I assign the variable the first time I use Exit Loop? I will try that, thanks.