piping get-childitem into select-string in powershell -

i sorting large directory of files , trying select individual lines output of ls command , show only, weird results , not familiar enough powershell know i'm doing wrong.

this approach works:

ls > data.txt select-string 2012 data.txt rm data.txt 

but seems wasteful me create file read data have fill file. want pipe output directly select-string.

i have tried approach:

ls | select-string 2012 

but not give me appropriate output.

my guess need convert output ls select-string can work with, have no idea how that, or whether correct approach.

powershell object-oriented, not pure text cmd. if want fileobjects(lines) modified in 2012, use:

get-childitem | where-object { $_.lastwritetime.year -eq 2012 } 

if want fileobjects "2012" in filename, try:

get-childitem *2012* 

when use

ls | select-string 2012 

you're searching lines "2012" inside every file ls / get-childitem listed.

if need use select-string on output get-childitem, try converting strings, splitting lines , search it. this:

(get-childitem | out-string) -split "`n" | select-string 2012