How to rename a bunch of files in a folder

I was going to merge .pdf files with Adobe Acrobat when I noticed they were named as 1.pdf, 2.pdf, ..., 10.pdf, ..., 20.pdf.

The main drawback of this kind of naming is that you have to reorder the files manually (see pic below).

As an alternative I thought: why don't I just rename the files padding the names with zeros to guarantee the 'right' ordering up to hundreds of files such that 1.pdf --> 001.pdf, 10.pdf --> 010.pdf etc...

Answer 1

[Jiro Doke]

Here's an example:

% Get all PDF files in the current folder
files = dir('*.pdf');

% Loop through each
for id = 1:length(files)
    % Get the file name (minus the extension)
    [~, f] = fileparts(files(id).name);

      % Convert to number
      num = str2double(f);
      if ~isnan(num)
          % If numeric, rename
          movefile(files(id).name, sprintf('%03d.pdf', num));
      end
end

[Ade Aulya]

hi.. thank you for this. i tried to use this code and it were run, but i didn't get the name file as i want. i wanted to change those file's number into only 1,2,3,4,5,and so on.. FYI, i've tried to change the folder name like this..

% Get all files in the current folder clear all;

files = dir(fullfile('C:\Users\ASUS\Desktop\2','*.tif'));

% Loop through each

for id = 1:length(files)

% Get the file name (minus the extension)

[~, f] = fileparts(files(id).name);

% Convert to number

num = str2double(f);

if ~isnan(num)

% If numeric, rename

APath = fullfile('C:\Users\ASUS\Desktop\2', files(id).name);

movefile(APath, sprintf('%d.tif', num));

end

end

and the output files name were like this :

2.100000e+00.tif

2.100100e+00.tif

2.100200e+00.tif

2.100300e+00.tif

2.100400e+00.tif

2.100500e+00.tif

etc..

or if i want to change it like

1a

2a

3a

continue directly to

5b

6b

7b

and so on..

what should i do, please ?

thank you so much.

Answer 2

[Oleg Komarov]

I came up with the following solution:

% Directory of the files
d = 'C:\Users\Oleg\Desktop\New folder\';

% Retrieve the name of the files only
names = dir(d);
names = {names(~[names.isdir]).name};

% Calculate the length of each name and the max length
len  = cellfun('length',names);
mLen = max(len); 

% Exclude from renaming the files long as the max 
idx   = len < mLen;
len   = len(idx);
names = names(idx);

Core of the script:

% Rename in a LOOP
for n = 1:numel(names)
    oldname = [d names{n}];
    newname = sprintf('%s%0*s',d,mLen, names{n});
    dos(['rename "' oldname '" "' newname '"']); % (1)
end

Alternative methods, repace (1):

movefile(oldname, newname)
java.io.File(oldname).renameTo(java.io.File(newname))

Or use Simon's FileRename

Some considerations on the timings might be found on CSSM: Why is MOVEFILE so slow?

I thought to add this as answer, do you have more suggestions?

Oleg

[Isabella Osetinsky-Tzidaki]

Thank you, great solution, very useful.

Answer 3

[Sameer Suregaonkar]

This a refined and clear version of Jiro Doke's code. Thanks to Jiro Doke for the core program.

% Get all files in the current folder clear all;

files = dir(fullfile('E:','imgs1','1','*.tif'));

% Loop through each

for id = 1:length(files)

 % Get the file name (minus the extension)

[~, f] = fileparts(files(id).name);

% Convert to number

num = str2double(f);

if ~isnan(num)

 % If numeric, rename

APath = fullfile('E:','imgs1','1', files(id).name);

movefile(APath, sprintf('%03d.tif', num));

end

end

[Ade Aulya]

hi.. thank you so much for clear codes. i used to use your code it were run but i didn't get the name file as i want. if i wanted to change those file's number into only 1,2,3,4,5,and so on.. what should i do, please ? FYI, i tried to change the folder name like this..

% Get all files in the current folder clear all;

files = dir(fullfile('C:\Users\ASUS\Desktop\2','*.tif'));

% Loop through each

for id = 1:length(files)

% Get the file name (minus the extension)

[~, f] = fileparts(files(id).name);

% Convert to number

num = str2double(f);

if ~isnan(num)

% If numeric, rename

APath = fullfile('C:\Users\ASUS\Desktop\2', files(id).name);

movefile(APath, sprintf('%d.tif', num));

end

end

and the output files name were like this :

2.100000e+00.tif

2.100100e+00.tif

2.100200e+00.tif

2.100300e+00.tif

2.100400e+00.tif

2.100500e+00.tif

etc..

do you have any idea, pease ?

thankyou.

[Ade Aulya]

or if i want to change it like 1a,2a,3a,4a,5a continue directly to 6b,7b,8b,9b,10b, and so on..

could u please give me an idea ?

thank you again :)

Answer 4

[Sulaymon Eshkabilov]

Here is the answer that changes the file names to: 1a.tif, 2a.tif, 3a.tif, ..., etc.

files = dir('*.tif');
for ii = 1:length(files)
    % Get the file name (minus the extension)
    [~, fname] = fileparts(files(ii).name);
      % Convert to number
      N = str2num(fname);
      if ~isnan(N)
          movefile(files(ii).name, sprintf('%2da.tif', N));
      end
end

Answer 5

[Hannah Rodger]

I am trying to rename a group of files using the bottom line in each file as the new name for the individual files. is there a way to do this in matlab?

Thank

Hannah