Copying last created file in a directory

Muammar

This works:

FOR /F "delims=" %%I IN ('DIR . /B /O:-D') DO COPY "%%I" .\t.xls & GOTO :END
:END

however, it takes the date of modification instead of creation, hence, if an old file in that folder got edited, it takes it! Any ideas?? Thanks.

MicroVirus

Look into Robocopy, if your target is Vista and above. Else, there might be freeware utilities that can do what you need. Finally, you could probably code it yourself, using the FileInfo and related classes. SetCreationTime could be used to set the creation date on the copied file to the creation date of the source file.

modified on Tuesday, August 9, 2011 8:06 PM

Alan N

Hi You've missed the timefield switch /T So I reckon you want

DIR . /B /O:-D /T:C

DIR [drive:][path][filename] [/A[[:]attributes]] [/B] [/C] [/D] [/L] [/N]
[/O[[:]sortorder]] [/P] [/Q] [/S] [/T[[:]timefield]] [/W] [/X] [/4]
[drive:][path][filename]

/O List by files in sorted order.
sortorder N By name (alphabetic) S By size (smallest first)
E By extension (alphabetic) D By date/time (oldest first)
G Group directories first - Prefix to reverse order
/T Controls which time field displayed or used for sorting
timefield C Creation
A Last Access
W Last Written

Muammar

Thanks mate!

Muammar

Thank you mate, you've helped a lot and you sound like an expert in DOS so I thought maybe you can assist with this.. The file to be copies has a name format of "PO 123.2011.txt" Now it is copied, is it possible to generate the next name (i.e. "PO 124.2011") probably using an expression for the math, concatenation and storing it into a temporary variable?? I'm using this for now..

FOR /F "delims=" %%I IN ('DIR . /B /O:-D /T:C') DO COPY "%%I" .\new.txt & GOTO :END
:END
START /MAX new.txt

Many thanks mate!

Alan N

Yes, I'd say it's possible to generate the next filename using batch commands but probably not advisable as it is going to be difficult to guarantee any kind of robustness. Here's something that will do it but you'll find out that it's a bit of a train wreck with anything other than the expected input format.

@echo off
REM generate next PO NNN.2011.txt where NNN is a number

SET FILENAME=PO 156.2011.txt
REM SET FILENAME=PO ABC.2011.txt
ECHO Initial filename %FILENAME%

REM get 2nd token using '.' and ' ' delimiters
for /F "tokens=2 delims=. " %%a in ("%FILENAME%") do SET /a NNN=%%a

REM what did we get
ECHO NNN %NNN%

REM Increment the value
SET /a NNN=%NNN% + 1
ECHO NNN+1 = %NNN%

SET FILENAME=PO %NNN%.2011.txt
ECHO New filename %FILENAME%
PAUSE

We can do a little bit better by attempting to check if the extracted token is actually numeric and then bailing out if something really bad has happened.

@echo off
REM generate next PO NNN.2011.txt where NNN is a number

SET FILENAME=PO 156.2011.txt
REM SET FILENAME=PO ABC.2011.txt
ECHO Initial filename %FILENAME%

REM get 2nd token using '.' and ' ' delimiters
REM Store token as both number and text
for /F "tokens=2 delims=. " %%a in ("%FILENAME%") do SET /a NNN=%%a & SET TEXT=%%a

REM what did we get
ECHO NNN %NNN% TEXT %TEXT%

REM Should be the same if the token is a decimal number
IF %NNN%==%TEXT% (
ECHO Yippee, got a number

REM Increment the value
SET /a NNN=%NNN% + 1

ECHO NNN+1 = %NNN%
SET FILENAME=PO %NNN%.2011.txt

ECHO New filename %FILENAME%
) ELSE (
ECHO Darn it, got a non numeric token
)

PAUSE

Have fun! Alan.

Muammar

Thank you Alan! That was very helpful.