How to properly use file.copy()?

Question

I am using the function file.copy() and I have some issues. The idea is to copy files based on a list of file names from one folder to another. How can i set up the code to make it work.

list.files("C:/Test/PDF", recursive = TRUE) #

t<- read.csv2(file="C://Test//tes.csv") #is the list with the file names

a <- as.character(t[1:nrow(t),])

file.copy(a, "C:/Test/PDF verschoben" )

message:

problem copying .\Eidesstattliche.pdf to C:\Test\PDF verschoben\Eidesstattliche.pdf: No such file or directoryproblem copying .\Anmeldung_Defensio.pdf to C:\Test\PDF verschoben\Anmeldung_Defensio.pdf: No such file or directory[1]  TRUE FALSE  TRUE  TRUE FALSE`

list.files("C:/Test/PDF", recursive = TRUE)
[1] "1/2014_Bewerbung Mietwohnung_Loe.pdf" "1/Anmeldung_Defensio.pdf"             "1/Eidesstattliche.pdf"                "2/Anhang_unterzeichnet.pdf"          
[5] "2/Formular_unterschrieben.pdf"

a
[1] "Formular_unterschrieben.pdf"        "Eidesstattliche.pdf"                "Anhang_unterzeichnet.pdf"           "2014_Bewerbung Mietwohnung_Loe.pdf"

Any ideas?

But why and how the files you are listed are in the `tes.csv` file. Show us the result of `getwd()` and try `a <- list.files(list.files("C:/Test/PDF", recursive = TRUE)` and `file.copy(paste0("C:/Test/PDF/", a), "C:/Test/PDF verschoben" )`. — pietrodito, Apr 14 '21 at 16:08
this is just only a test for a worklfow. i have a folder with almost 700 files and i need to move arround 400 of them to another folder. I got the 400 file names from a database as a csv. getwd() is "C:/Test/PDF" — Klini, Apr 14 '21 at 16:18

pietrodito · Accepted Answer · 2021-04-14T16:10:35.820

0

The question is not crystal clear, but the issue seems to be that list.files() does NOT return the entire path as you can see in the error message : copying .\Eidesstattliche.pdf.

I cannot see why and how the files you are listed are in the tes.csv file. Show us the result of getwd() and try:

a <- list.files(list.files("C:/Test/PDF", recursive = TRUE)
file.copy(paste0("C:/Test/PDF/", a), "C:/Test/PDF verschoben" )

edited Apr 14 '21 at 16:10

answered Apr 14 '21 at 15:24

pietrodito

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i tired, but then i get an error for all my files (in total 5). – Klini Apr 14 '21 at 15:50
Show us the files already in the directories and the content of the `a` variable – pietrodito Apr 14 '21 at 15:52
maybe because of the spaces? because it just not working for those two. but how can i deal with it? – Klini Apr 14 '21 at 16:05
these works fine, as i thought. but i need a way to select the files based on a list. – Klini Apr 14 '21 at 16:29
Unfortunately, you are unable to discribe your problem. Try to read that post: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5963269/how-to-make-a-great-r-reproducible-example. You should give some code that we can run on our machines. – pietrodito Apr 14 '21 at 16:40
thx for your food for thought, i finallly fixed my problem. – Klini Apr 15 '21 at 06:44
Could you edit your question and show your solution? – pietrodito Apr 15 '21 at 07:12

How to properly use file.copy()?

1 Answers1