Using For Loop to Rename All Files in a Folder

Using For Loop to Rename All Files in a Folder

This is the batch script for windows to rename all files in a folder on windows. This works well perfectly. This was useful for me. It may help others to do the same. I was worried to change the files name and folder using script, atlast i find my script to fix the issue.

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

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)