How do I write a Windows batch script to copy the newest file from a directory?

I need to copy the newest file in a directory to a new location. So far I've found resources on the forfiles command, a date-related question here, and another related question. I'm just having a bit of trouble putting the pieces together! How do I copy the newest file in that directory to a new place?

The accepted answer gives an example of using the newest file in a command and then exiting. If you need to do this in a bat file with other complex operations you can use the following to store the file name of the newest file in a variable:

FOR /F "delims=" %%I IN ('DIR "*.*" /A-D /B /O:D') DO SET "NewestFile=%%I"

Now you can reference %NewestFile% throughout the rest of your bat file.

For example here is what we use to get the latest version of a database .bak file from a directory, copy it to a server, and then restore the db:

:Variables
SET DatabaseBackupPath=\\virtualserver1\Database Backups

echo.
echo Restore WebServer Database
FOR /F "delims=|" %%I IN ('DIR "%DatabaseBackupPath%\WebServer\*.bak" /B /O:D') DO SET NewestFile=%%I
copy "%DatabaseBackupPath%\WebServer\%NewestFile%" "D:\"

sqlcmd -U <username> -P <password> -d master -Q ^
"RESTORE DATABASE [ExampleDatabaseName] ^
FROM  DISK = N'D:\%NewestFile%' ^
WITH  FILE = 1,  ^
MOVE N'Example_CS' TO N'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Example.mdf',  ^
MOVE N'Example_CS_log' TO N'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Example_1.LDF',  ^
NOUNLOAD,  STATS = 10"

Windows shell, one liner:

FOR /F "delims=" %%I IN ('DIR *.* /A-D /B /O:-D') DO COPY "%%I" <<NewDir>> & EXIT

To allow this to work with filenames using spaces, a modified version of the accepted answer is needed:

FOR /F "delims=" %%I IN ('DIR . /B /O:-D') DO COPY "%%I" <<NewDir>> & GOTO :END
:END

@echo off
set source="C:\test case"
set target="C:\Users\Alexander\Desktop\random folder"

FOR /F "delims=" %%I IN ('DIR %source%\*.* /A:-D /O:-D /B') DO COPY %source%\"%%I" %target% & echo %%I & GOTO :END
:END
TIMEOUT 4

My attempt to copy the newest file from a folder

just set your source and target folders and it should work

This one ignores folders, concern itself only with files

Recommed that you choose filetype in the DIR path changing *.* to *.zip for example

TIMEOUT wont work on winXP I think

I know you asked for Windows but thought I'd add this anyway,in Unix/Linux you could do:

cp `ls -t1 | head -1` /somedir/

Which will list all files in the current directory sorted by modification time and then cp the most recent to /somedir/