rename multiple files in a folder using R

Question

I have a folder which contains several files named by the date the data was measured. For example: "07182014.csv","07192014.csv"...

Since I have multiple stations for the measurements, I would like to add the station number before each file name for distinguish purposes. For example, the file "07182014.csv" will become "N1_07182014.csv".

I'm new to R, and most of the time I search the web for solutions to my data analysis problem.

Can someone help me revise the code I'm having below so I can properly rename all files in the folder? Or if any other better solution can be provided, that will be helpful!

setwd("C:\\data")
files <- list.files() 
sapply(files,FUN=function(eachPath){ 
file.rename(from=eachPath,to=sub(pattern="[$.csv]", paste0("N0_"),eachPath)) 
})

Thanks a lot！

I would have though the sub call would be: `sub(pattern="(.*)(\\\.csv)", "N0_\\1\\2"), eachPath)` — IRTFM, Sep 04 '14 at 19:39

Mahdi Jadaliha · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-04T20:22:06.353

4

Here is my answer:

folder = "C:\\data"
files <- list.files(folder,pattern = "*.CSV",full.names = T) 
   sapply(files,FUN=function(eachPath){ 
   file.rename(from=eachPath,to= sub(pattern="\\/", paste0("\\/N0_"),eachPath))
 })

edited Sep 04 '14 at 20:22

answered Sep 04 '14 at 19:51

Mahdi Jadaliha

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Thanks for your answer. But nothing changed for the file name with your code. – Vicki1227 Sep 04 '14 at 19:55
It is working on my computer. do you have *.csv files in "c:\data", Are they all small letter? if not change csv to CSV – Mahdi Jadaliha Sep 04 '14 at 19:59
Thanks. My files are in .CSV and I changed the code. But the output I got is: C:/data/07182014.CSV C:/data/07212014.CSV FALSE FALSE – Vicki1227 Sep 04 '14 at 20:06
I changed the code. This one should really work. – Mahdi Jadaliha Sep 04 '14 at 20:15
Thanks, the updated code works! But is there any way to put "N0_" before the dates in the file name? Like "N0_07182014.csv" instead of current output of "07182014_N0.csv"? – Vicki1227 Sep 04 '14 at 20:18
yes. it is possible use the following code: folder = "C:\\data" files <- list.files(folder,pattern = "*.CSV",full.names = T) sapply(files,FUN=function(eachPath){ file.rename(from=eachPath,to= sub(pattern="\\/", paste0("\\/N0_"),eachPath)) }) – Mahdi Jadaliha Sep 04 '14 at 20:20
updated accordingly. use the updated code. – Mahdi Jadaliha Sep 04 '14 at 20:22
The updated code did nothing to rename the files correctly... I noticed “\\/" in the code, is this correct? – Vicki1227 Sep 04 '14 at 20:28
It is working on my computer! :| did you defined folder = "C:\\data"? don't use "/" in folder defination! – Mahdi Jadaliha Sep 04 '14 at 20:53
Oh, R has so many tricks!!! Thanks so much for the code! – Vicki1227 Sep 04 '14 at 20:56

rename multiple files in a folder using R

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