cmd batch rename using string or tirm

Question

I have a couple .pdf files with with the following:

filename_garbage.pdf

I would like to rename the files by removing the _garbage in one fell swoop to

filename.pdf

The file name is unique as is the _garbage which is also a variable length.

Ie:

123456_1.pdf
789012_1000.pdf
345678_garbage.pdf

rename to :

123456.pdf
789012.pdf
345678.pdf

I know it is a multi-step process, but so far not having any success.

Possible duplicate of [Rename all files in a directory with a Windows batch script](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9383032/rename-all-files-in-a-directory-with-a-windows-batch-script) — Ken White, Apr 06 '16 at 21:54

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 07 '16 at 01:16

1

for /f "tokens=1*delims=_" %%a in ('dir /b "*_*.*"') do ren "%%a_%%b" "%%a%%~xb"

Suggest you echo the ren commands for verification purposes before applying the script in anger.

If run directly from the prompt, reduce %%n to %n

answered Apr 07 '16 at 01:16

Magoo

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 06 '16 at 22:58

On Windows Vista or newer? Use PowerShell. It's a one step process in a reasonably modern language.

gci | ren -NewName { $_ -replace '_.*(?=\.)' }

which is short for

Get-ChildItem .\ | Rename-Item -NewName { $_ -replace '_.*(?=\.)' }

and the replace pattern is a regular expression which matches an underscore _ followed by anything, up to a dot ., and it replaces with nothing. So in your examples it replaces _1, _1000, _garbage.

cmd batch rename using string or tirm

2 Answers2