Powershell @programming.dev BobTheDestroyer @lemy.lol 7 mo. ago

Renaming multiple files based on a list of names

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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23 comments

If the CSV file contains both the current names and the new names, this should work if you use the first line for column labels (I'm using OldName and NewName in this example):

Import-CSV $pathToCSV | ForEach-Object { Rename-Item $_.OldName $_.NewName }

If you just have a list of new names as a text file where the first line of the file is the new name for the first file (by name, sorted alphabetically), this should work:

$files = Get-ChildItem -File *.pdf | Sort-Object -Property Name #I think the output of Get-ChildItem is already sorted by name, but I'm not sure $newNames = Get-Content $pathToTXT if ($files.Count -ne $newNames.Count) { Write-Error "The number of PDF files to be renamed does not match the number of new names" exit } 0..($files.Count - 1) | ForEach-Object { Rename-Item $files[$_] $newNames[$_] }
- Thanks but PS closes so I assume it ran into an error. I'm not sure why because there is the same number of files and list items. I doublechecked to make sure.
  
  I have no idea why this wouldn't work on your machine - I've tested it on mine and it works fine. So maybe you have overlooked some small things:
  
  If there are any other PDFs in the directory that you don't want to rename, then the list of files is longer than the list of names.
  
  If the PS window closes completely, you might have typed it into the terminal instead of running it as a script - then the problem might just be that you closed the if block too early, so PS immediately executes the exit command.
  
  If your list of new names contains a column label like in a one-column CSV, then it has one more line than there are files.
- Perhaps my directions were unclear. The Excel/CSV file has the new names and I want to use them to replace the default names for the PDF files.
  
  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. :)
  
  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 }
  
  If it's a simple text file then you can use:
  
  cat '.\individuals.txt' | foreach-object { $newname = ‘2’ + $_ + '.docx’ Rename-item '.\_2023 Summary Page.docx' $newname }
  
  That will crash if there is more than one line in individuals.txt, because by the second iteration '.\_2023 Summary Page.docx' has been renamed.
  
  I see. Any suggestions on how to correct it?
  
  Just use Copy-Item instead of Rename-Item if you want multiple identical files with different names
  
  Actually they're all different files.
  
  Then the snippet won't work because it only ever renames/copies the file '_2023 Summary Page.docx'. What are the actual names of the files you want to rename?
  
  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.
  
  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.
  
  It manages to output one file titled 'name; 0++'
  
  Ah, I misplaced a quote in my code, I've update the post - try version.
  
  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?
  
  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.
  
  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!

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