Batch Script on Windows: Using For Loop to Rename All Files in a Folder
February 23rd, 2009 by Andrew Chen
I was trying to write a batch file to rename
rem: Some testing batch command in Windows XP
setlocal ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
@echo off
rem ***************** Test 1 **********************
rem about variables
set var1= This is a variable VAR1
set var2=’This is a variable VAR2′
set var3=”This is a variable VAR3″
echo %var1%
echo ‘%var2%’
echo “%var3%”
rem ***********************************************
rem Conclusion from test 1 is that assigning text
rem value to variable doesn’t need to be quoted
rem ***********************************************
rem **************** Test 2 **********************
rem about for loop
set count=0
for %%a in (1 2 3) do (
echo !count!
set /A count=!count!+1
echo %%a
)
for %%A in (1 2) do for %%B in (A B) DO ECHO %%A%%B
rem **********************************************
rem Conclusion from test 2 is that variable in
rem the for loop has to be single character like
rem %%a. %%var will not work
rem you don’t have to have
rem setlocal ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION for the count
rem to work but you do have to use !count! instead
rem of %count%
rem **********************************************
rem **************** Test 3 **********************
rem use for loop to list all .txt file names
for /f %%a in (’dir /b transaction*.txt’) do (
echo %%a
)
rem **********************************************
rem I don’t know what the switch /f in the for
rem statement and the /A switch in the set
rem statement mean but it works.
rem Can someone explain the switch? =)
rem **********************************************
rem **************** Test 4 **********************
rem rename all .txt file so that all of them
rem starts with “trans” instead of “transaction”
for /f “tokens=1,2 delims=_” %%a in (’dir /b transaction*.txt’) do (
if “%%a”==”transaction” echo yes
echo %%a
echo %%b
ren %%a_%%b tran_%%b
)
rem **********************************************
rem The above script works fine. It renames all
rem files named in partern transaction_XXXX.txt
rem to trans_XXXXX.txt
rem “tokens=1,2 delims=_” tells it to separate
rem whatever returned in dir command in two parts
rem using the first “_” found and put the first
rem token in %%a, the second in %%b.
rem It is very powerful and interesting!
rem **********************************************
goto :eof
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Nice one, many thanks for this. The solutions in here were very handy to me, but just as useful were the methodical tests and explanation of switches (where you knew them!) Now we have the solution we needed, having got close but fallen at the last hurdle before.
One additional remark: if you decide NOT to set ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION, then the !variable! syntax fails. Not sure if that means that %variable% would work in that situation instead, but just thought I’d be explicit about where ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION had an effect (though obviously it’s relevant in other parts too)
Thanks again
I use biterscripting ( http://www.biterscripting.com ) for file rename. It offers more flexibility and power and is easy to learn. You can try it. I have seen several rename biterscripts posted on the net. I also have posted some although a small number.
Sen
Thank you for the script examples!
The /f simply indicates the for loop is using a filename set
The /A means the right hand side of the equal sign is a numeric value
Got these from /?
set /A var=…
Defines an Arithmatic operation.