DOS question

[Simon Capewell]

I use either Stexbar[^] or Shell Renamer[^]

[Gary Wheeler]

for /I %I in (1,1,9) do ren L%I.txt L00%I.txt
for /I %I in (10,1,99) do ren L%I.txt L0%I.txt

Software Zen: delete this;

[MatthewPainter]

Up till a couple of months ago I would have written this in VBScript no sweat but these days I am writing everything in PowerShell to get my skills up. Thanks for the challenge.

# Make 100 test files (create dir structure first)
1..100 | % ($_){New-Item "c:\scripts\Lfiles\L$_.txt" -type file}

# Rename all files to specification (remove -whatif switch to make it live)
Get-ChildItem c:\scripts\Lfiles | % ($_){rename-item -path $_.fullname -newname (($_.basename -replace "[0-9]", "")+("{0:000}" -f [int]($_.basename -replace "[^0-9]", ""))+($_.extension)) -whatif}

[brimars]

Assuming Russell is actually using DOS (we still have machinery running DOS exclusively on 386 and 486 machines), I think Henry's idea is probably the best place to start. The DOS ? and * wildcard characters don't always give exactly the expected results.

[TheF0rmatter]

For files with numbers less than 10: FOR /L %F in (1,1,9) DO REN L%F.txt L00%F.txt For files with numbers from 10 to 99: FOR /L %F IN (10,1,99) DO REN L%F.txt L0%F.txt You could expand this out with a check to make sure the file exists: FOR /L %F IN (1,1,9 DO IF EXIST L%F.txt REN L%F.txt L00%F.txt

[Lost User]

Aww, you hurt my feelings. I was just starting to feel special. :) Just kidding - that Total Commander thing does look pretty nice.

[InfinitelyRemote]

Whenever I have to do bulk renaming I always include DOS in the mix... First I place all the files in c:\work folder entering the following in DOS C: CD C:\WORK DIR /B > FILES.TXT yields a simple text file with all file names listed one per line. then make a second copy of the TXT file COPY FILES.TXT FILES1.TXT FILES.TXT becomes the rename "Command" portion and FILES1.TXT becomes the "New Names" portion of the exercise. Many times the file names I am converting contain spaces so that means the RENAME command requires the name be encased in quotes. so using a text editor (I use JSoft's EditPadPro) I do a search and replace of carriage returns... FIND [CR] and REPLACE WITH: " RENAME " This puts a quote at the end of each line and the rename command-space-quote at the beginning of each line (with manual tweaking of the first and last lines). Save FILES.TXT Open FILES1.TXT in the text editor and with some thoughtful and creative "String Search and Replace" convert this list into the required filenames. Using the Block Mode Selection feature, copy this column of file names. Open FILES.TXT and paste this block into the far right field of the first row (making sure the block does not crash into the existing text.) Save FILES.TXT I then open FILES.TXT in CuteHTML because it has a "Code Optimizer" feature that allows me to remove all extra spaces from the file. Save the FILES.TXT as FILES.BAT Back in DOS run FILES and WOOSH!... easy-peasy. The whole process usually goes pretty quickly and is the best way I have found to deal with insanely punctuated filenames. I know this is nowhere near as elegant as you where hoping for but that is what I would be doing. change L to L00, change L001 to L1 to get the hundreds and manually fix L1.txt to L001.txt and on like that. more power to you!

[Russell]

that was what I was looking for! thank you -------------------------------------------------------------------- If someone in future will have the same problem I also report here a more complex script I prepared before reading this reply that does the same thing (I hope :~). Because for me it is trivial to not change absolutely the name of the files, then the script is very robust on this feature (and it display a sort of report to check all the progress) Thanks again to all

@echo off

@echo File 001 to 009
set /a cnt1=1
:DATA0109
IF NOT EXIST L%cnt1%.sg2 @echo L%cnt1%.sg2 not found
IF EXIST L%cnt1%.sg2 @echo rename L%cnt1%.sg2 L00%cnt1%.sg2
IF EXIST L%cnt1%.sg2 rename L%cnt1%.sg2 L00%cnt1%.sg2
set /a cnt1+=1
if %cnt1%==10 goto :DATA1099BEGIN
goto :DATA0109

:DATA1099BEGIN
@echo File 010 to 099
set /a cnt1=0
set /a cnt2=1
:DATA1099
IF NOT EXIST L%cnt2%%cnt1%.sg2 @echo L%cnt2%%cnt1%.sg2 not found
IF EXIST L%cnt2%%cnt1%.sg2 @echo rename L%cnt2%%cnt1%.sg2 L0%cnt2%%cnt1%.sg2
IF EXIST L%cnt2%%cnt1%.sg2 rename L%cnt2%%cnt1%.sg2 L0%cnt2%%cnt1%.sg2
set /a cnt1+=1
if %cnt1%==10 set /a cnt2+=1
if %cnt1%==10 set /a cnt1=0
if %cnt2%==10 goto :EXIT
goto :DATA1099

:EXIT
pause
goto :EOF

---

Russell

[InfinitelyRemote]

Gotta LOVE that FOR-IN-DO!! L_O_
VE This Suggestion!

[Dale Barnard]

BRU has been solid and great for years. You have to upgrade to use it across a network, though.

[edmurphy99]

using the old %%n will work for %%n in (\\directory\filename*.txt)

[Naruki 0]

No offense. I remember when I had to edit huge (for the early 90s) 3MB text files and I used WordPerfect Editor because of all the macro functions. I occasionally wrote little macros for tasks like this to create a batch file. This is about the level of using Excel. It works in a pinch, but... Later I was introduced to both Norton Commander and Sage Professional Editor, and things got even better. SPE was a dream, as it could edit multiple docs at the same time and its macro language used AWK. The consultant who introduced it to us had some nifty tricks to automatically open those text files and jump to the line in the error log. Needless to say I quickly abandoned WP Editor. Then Win95 came out, Norton made one last version of Commander for that platform, SPE changed from a DOS based to a Win95 editor renamed Preditor, and life was looking good. Then Norton Commander was gone, and Preditor was bundled into some insanely overpriced corporate enterprise suite and lost to me forever. I despaired. Eventually I found my first NC clone called Volkov Commander, and it was a decent but slightly buggy thing. Never did find a text editor with an AWK-like macro language. And maybe ten years ago I discovered Windows Commander, subsequently renamed to Total Commander when Microsoft threatened them. It was a superb NC clone, no bugs. And in the years since, he has added features that just make it better and better. Some of them I never used for the longest time, but as I found a need for them I realized just how powerful they are. That file rename feature is one of the incredible ones when you need it. I realize that in Linux this is all done with too clever by half scripts at the command line, but that has never really appealed to me. I like a good GUI. Total Commander makes that stuff easy.

Narf.

[englebart]

Write a program in your favorite language on any platform to generate a throw away batch file. Don't waste too much time messing with all of the DOS quirks. DONT FORGET TO LEAVE ROOM FOR EXPANSION! 110 files today is 100,000 files tomorrow! example in C int i; for (i = 1; i <= 100; ++i) printf("ren L%d.txt L%5.5d.txt\r\n"); capture the output via: a.exe > myrename.bat myrename.bat

[Noel Paricollo 2]

BetterFileRename: http://www.publicspace.net/windows/BetterFileRename/index.html[^]

NoelPV2

[da808wiz]

FYI, I would do it like this (from the command prompt, not from a batch file): for %f in (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9) do rename L%f.txt L00%f.txt for %f in (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9) do for %g in (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9) do rename L%f%g.txt L0%f%g.txt that would work to rename the 1-99 files. The 100 file is already in that format. Sincerely G

[da808wiz]

1. okay, now that's the first time I saw the !! being used. I'm not sure in what version that was introduced. 2) I tried it and it only works in a batch file, not from the command prompt, but that's a minor setback, still amazing. 3) I would do it with a slight twist: echo:@echo off>myrename.bat echo:setlocal ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION>>myrename.bat echo:for /L %%f in (1,1,100) do (>>myrename.bat echo:(set i=00%%f)>>myrename.bat echo:(set i=!i:~-3!)>>myrename.bat echo:rename L%%f.txt L!i!.txt>>myrename.bat echo:)>>myrename.bat echo:endlocal>>myrename.bat Thanks for the !i! thing...! Sincerely, G

[Russell]

yes, prompt is better then bat. Thats why I was hoping to use something like that rename L?.txt L00?.txt rename L??.txt L0??.txt that was quite understandable and not so difficult to be implemented into the DOS implementation of the command copy, rename, ... :sigh:

---

Russell

[Russell]

:laugh: yes...nice tip

---

Russell

[jsc42]

The code

NuLiFree wrote:

for %f in (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9) do rename L%f.txt L00%f.txt for %f in (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9) do for %g in (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9) do rename L%f%g.txt L0%f%g.txt

does not cater for missing entries. You could add 2>nul to the end of the renames to hide the errors, but the following (untested) would be safer and (in the second set) faster if some cases are not required:

for %f in (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9) do if exist L%f.txt rename L%f.txt L00%f.txt
for %f in (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9) do if exist L%f?.txt for %g in (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9) do if exist L%f%g.txt rename L%f%g.txt L0%f%g.txt

You might want to change the two occurrences of (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9) to (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9) to catch some erroneously named files.

[blue lizard]

I've used this before and I totally agree.