use dos function to Rename files
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Please help ... I am not a programming person. My coding skill is very basic.
I have more than 10,000 files that need to be renamed.
The old file name is oldName = 'C:\Users\aaa\bcd.docx.
the new file name is newFile = 'C:\Users\aaa\b - c - d.docx.
If I use movefile function, it would take me forever to complete the task. I am trying to use dos function but was unsuccessful. Here is my dos function:
dos(['rename "' oldName '" "' newName '"']);
and I got the following error: "The syntax of the command is incorrect."
Greatly appreciate the response ...
5 Comments
per isakson
on 20 Sep 2015
Edited: per isakson
on 20 Sep 2015
Have a look at this function, cmd_rename. It's a wrapper for dos' rename It takes wildcards. However,
cmd_rename( 'h:\m\cssm\tmp', '???.docx', '? - ? - ?.docx' )
gave an unexpected result.
Walter Roberson
on 21 Sep 2015
With regards to the implementation of movefile: up to R13, movefile and copyfile invoked DOS commands, including the DOS command attrib . The next version of MS Windows that came along moved attrib out of the default path, causing movefile and copyfile to break. Mathworks responded in R14 by switching to internal calls instead of invoking a process.
Answers (3)
Star Strider
on 19 Sep 2015
Edited: per isakson
on 7 Oct 2015
I haven’t used the dos function in a while, but you probably need to get rid of all but the enclosing quotes and definitely get rid of the square brackets, since they work as a concatenation operator and remove the intervening spaces.
This works:
fidt = fopen('abc.txt','wt'); % Create Demonstration File
fclose(fidt); % Close It
imhere1 = which('abc.txt') % Verify File Exists
%
oldName = 'abc.txt';
newName = 'a-b-c.txt';
[status,cmdout] = dos(sprintf('rename %s %s', oldName, newName)) % Rename File
%
imhere2 = which('a-b-c.txt') % Verify ‘rename’ Call Worked
%
imhere1 =
C:\Users\<USERNAME>\Documents\MATLAB\abc.txt
status =
0.0000e+000
cmdout =
''
imhere2 =
C:\Users\<USERNAME>\Documents\MATLAB\a-b-c.txt
(I edited my user name out of the path, but there were no other changes.)
4 Comments
Walter Roberson
on 21 Sep 2015
Why not just always put the "" in the sprintf() ?
oldName = 'abc.txt';
newName = 'a - b - c.txt';
[status,cmdout] = dos(sprintf('rename "%s" "%s"', oldName, newName));
Star Strider
on 21 Sep 2015
Thanks. I thought of that this morning, but was too tired last night to think to include it in the sprintf call.
Jan
on 21 Sep 2015
Edited: Jan
on 21 Sep 2015
Try the fast http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/29569-filerename to move files, which is equivalent to a renaming.
R2011b, 800 Files a 100kb:
- movefile: 5.4 sec
- FileRename.mexw64: 0.9 sec
- java.io.File.renameTo: 1.0 sec
So Java is an alternative, if compiled Mex-code is a problem.
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