Batch script to remove # from a file name (only in a specific directory)

Question

I'm looking for a script to remove the # character out of any file names in a specific directory (PDF documents).

I've been looking at some similar examples, but it's all a bit confusing!

Solution 1

@echo off &setlocal
cd /d c:\users\data
for /f "delims=" %%a in ('dir /b /a-d *#*.pdf') do (
    set "fname=%%~a"
    setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
    set "nname=!fname:#=!"
    ren "!fname!" "!nname!"
    endlocal
)

Solution 2

It's 2013, you should use PowerShell:

Get-ChildItem | Where-Object {$_.Name -match '#'} | ForEach-Object { Rename-Item -Path $_.Name -NewName $($_.Name -Replace "#", "") -WhatIf }

Navigate to the directory in question and execute the line. It finds all files with a # and then renames each of them. Remove the '-Whatif' to actually perform the operation.

A shorter version using aliases and defaults would be:

ls | ? {$_.Name -match "#"} | ForEach { rni $_.Name $($_.Name -Replace "#", "")}

As least the long version seems more readable to me than the 1980s batch syntax. The only cryptic part here is the '$.Name', '$' in PowerShell refers to the current object in the loop. Here in all cases to the current file. Because we need an expression for the -NewName parameter, we have to wrap it into $()

Comments

[tumchaaditya]

Hey, I am thinking of starting with powershell...used batch files for too long now....never bothered to switch to powershell....can you recommend a good place to get started with powershell

[Peter Hahndorf]

@tumchaaditya - Not off top of my head. I learned it by using it over the years. But there are tons of books and online resources out there.

[David]

Thats great, thanks very much. Is it possible to get this to point to a specfic directory? i.e c:\users\data?

[Endoro]

@David look at my edit, pls.

[David]

Perfect, it works exactly how i need. Thank you very much for the help - very kind of you

[Arthor]

Any chance to include multiple characters such as ( ) and - as well for /f "delims=" %%a in ('dir /b /a-d *#*') do (

[Endoro]

@Arthor you can replace '#' with '(', but there is no OR operator in Batch. So you have to write (c/p) the 'for /f' loop for each character. Maybe there is a better solution, but I haven't dealt with Batch for a long time.

[Endoro]

P.S. you may try for /f "delims=" %%a in ('dir /b /a-d *#*.pdf *(*.pdf *)*.pdf') do (, but I'm not sure if it will work if more than one character is to be replaced.

[Endoro]

P.P.S. *!*.pdf will not work, because ! is a special character in Batch.

[Arthor]

@Endoro I tired for /f "delims=" %%a in ('dir /b /a-d '#' '-' '(' ')' ') do (. No go.. I would like to do this command across all files, not only PDFs.

[Endoro]

@Arthor so remove the extension: for /f "delims=" %%a in ('dir /b /a-d *#* *(* *)*') do ( or replace the extension with an asterisks: for /f "delims=" %%a in ('dir /b /a-d *#*.* *(*.* *)*.*') do (.