Powershell: Rename a folder when only partial name is known - powershell

Question

I need to rename a folder without knowing the full folder name.
For Example C:\myfolder-2021-5-1 (I know the first part of the folder name)
I would like to rename it to c:\myfolder... Again, the script wont always know the full folder name.
Edit: I am new to Powershell. I have spent a few hours looking on Google and I don't see examples of people trying to rename a folder using a wildcard. There are very few folder renaming examples that I could find. Most of what I find pertains to renaming files not folders.
I get it people wanting me to "try" first and then ask questions. But, sometimes, especially for us newbies, we don't even know where to start.
I tried using several filename examples and just using a directory name with a wildcard and that did not work.
Don't know what else to say.
Any ideas?
Thanks!

Answer 1

You cant rename a directory if you dont know it's name - thats just not how files and directories work. What you can do is search for a directory that matches your criteria, then you can rename it.
(I'm assuming the reason you dont know the exact name is because its a date, but im also assuming the format of the directory name is consistent)
At its most basic level, this would work for your example:
get-childitem -Path c:\ -Directory -Filter "myfolder-????-*-*" | Move-Item -Destination "renamed-myfolder"
This will search for directories in C:\ that match the pattern "myfolder-????-*-*" - so this pattern would match your example folder C:\myfolder-2021-5-1. Then pass that Directory down the pipeline (|) into Move-Item where the directory is renamed to c:\renamed-myfolder.
This code has some major drawbacks though! It doesnt check if the new name exists before trying to rename the directory so it might fail. Also if more than 1 folder matches the filter only the first rename (Move-Item) will succeed. Its upto you to think about these edge cases and add suitable logic to detect/prevent them.
Its a good idea to use Test-Path command to check if the destination name already exists or not:
if(Test-Path -Path c:\renamed-myfolder){
throw "ERROR - c:\renamed-myfolder already exists!";
}
NOTE: Get-ChildItem filters * means "any characters" and ? means "one character" so "myfolder-*-*-*" would also work, but if the year is always 4 digits then use the ???? as its more specific. Ive used the filter "myfolder-????-*-*" as im assuming some days/months will be 2 digits like myfolder-2021-12-12.