I've searched for a simple solution to this, but haven't been able to find one yet. 

I've got an array of strings of directory paths.  They are all different and all different lengths.  I only want to retain the last parent and subdirectory in each path.  For example:

\program files\adobe\working\documents\bob
\users\bob\documents\engineering\poc
\source code\professional services\GM\2010\august\10\development\perl
 

I only want "documents\bob", "engineering\poc" and "development\perl". 

I've tried using different variations of string split("\") and trim, but have not had any luck.  Is there an easy way to do this in PowerShell?

Thanks,
jcridge

"\program files\adobe\working\documents\bob","\users\bob\documents\engineering\poc","\source code\professional services\GM\2010\august\10\development\perl" | foreach {
$_.split("\\")[-2,-1] -join "\"
}

That is perfect.  Works like a charm.  I still have a lot to learn and didn't realize I could use "-" (negative, from the left) with split.

Thank you very much. 

Is there a good PowerShell command reference guide you can suggest?

Thanks,
jcridge

Shay, do you mind explaining what you did just there? I'm trying to follow along, but I'm very confused.

I can't figure out why the delimiter is "\\"
I don't know what the index values [-2,-1] are doing, nor the -join.

Thanks!

The split works with just the single backslash:

PS C:\> $("foo\bar").Split("\")
foo
bar

I'm guessing the double backslash was unintentional. The C# syntax uses the double backslash because in C# backslash is the escape character. I do it all the time.

The negative numbers in the notation are like an index from the end of the array. [-1] returns the last element, [-2] returns the second to last, etc.

The -Join operator is a very nice feature when dealing with arrays of strings. You can concatenate all the strings in an array, where the separator between each array element is what is passed to the join operation. For example:

PS C:\> @("Foo","Bar") -Join "-"
Foo-Bar

PS C:\> @("Foo","Bar","Hi") -Join "-"
Foo-Bar-Hi

Ah ha, good stuff, thanks!

Yup, the Split method just one works just fine one backslash, it was a leftover from previous testings with the Split operator which requires double backslash.