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Renaming multiple files based on a list of names (lemy.lol)

submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by BobTheDestroyer@lemy.lol to c/powershell@programming.dev

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Note: I'm a beginner to Powershell and a bit more familiar with Bash (though still a beginner for that too).

*I have multiple PDF files and I want to rename each file based on a list of names found in an Excel/CSV (could be a text file if easier) file.

*The list begins at the A2 cell and the A1 cell has the header 'name'.

*The files are in sequential order and match the order of the list of names.

Thanks for your help!

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[–] d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

There's no point in having a CSV for just a single column, just make it a simple text file and it'll simplify the code a bit. So assuming you have a file called names.txt, here's a one-liner that can do the trick:

$names = cat "\path\to\names.txt"; $i=0; dir | % { ren $_ "$($names[$i])"; $i++ }

As long as the order in your text file matches the order shown by dir, you shouldn't have any issues. Maybe do a dry run with a -WhatIf to the ren first to see how the files are being renamed, before you do the actual rename. :)

[–] BobTheDestroyer@lemy.lol 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Thanks but I'm getting a 'Cannot create a file when that file already exists.' error. I checked the path so I am certain it is correct.

[–] d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

That means there's a duplicate entry, check the full error message for the file name. You can also use the -Verbose switch to see what's going on.

[–] BobTheDestroyer@lemy.lol 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It manages to output one file titled 'name; 0++'

[–] d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Ah, I misplaced a quote in my code, I've update the post - try version.

[–] BobTheDestroyer@lemy.lol 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

So it sort of worked in that it outputed a bunch of files with the names but with blank icons and not the Adobe icons. Powershell also had an error for each list item that looked like the following:

Rename-Item : Cannot bind argument to parameter 'NewName' because it is an empty string.
At line:1 char:86
+ ... ads\individuals.txt"; $i=0; dir | % { ren $_ "$($names[$i])"; $i++ }
+                                                   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidData: (:) [Rename-Item], ParameterBindingValidationException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : ParameterArgumentValidationErrorEmptyStringNotAllowed,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Rena
   meItemCommand

Maybe the command needs '.pdf' somewhere?

[–] d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Well yeah, you need the full name of the file. PowerShell will not automatically asumme the extension of a file.

Also that empty string error means there's a blank line somewhere in your input list, so you'll need to get rid of that.

[–] BobTheDestroyer@lemy.lol 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Just figured it out! Added '.pdf' in the second half of the command.

$names = cat "\path\to\names.txt"; $i=0; dir | % { ren $_ "$($names[$i]).pdf"; $i++ }

Thanks for all your help!

[–] BobTheDestroyer@lemy.lol 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Also I had someone help with a similar task of duplicating a Word file that is renamed from a list of names found in a csv file. What would be the code when a txt file is used?

Import-csv ‘.\individuals.csv’ | foreach-object {
    $newname = ‘2’ + $_.name + '.docx’
    Copy-item '.\_2023 Summary Page.docx' $newname
}