How to move files based on filename using PowerShell? - powershell

Question

I am new to PowerShell and am stuck at something.
How to move files based on filename using PowerShell?
Move 0001_ddmmyy_username[active1]_L_kkkkk.pdf to C:\Users\abc\London
Move 0001_ddmmyy_jacky[active1]_R_kkkkk.pdf to C:\Users\abc\Russia
Move 0001_ddmmyy_jim[active1]_P_kkkkk.pdf to C:\Users\abc\Poland
I used the following code to move files to a folder called London. It fails if the file name has any square bracket with text [kkkk].
gci 'C:\Users\abc' -Recurse -Include "*_L*" | %{ Move-Item $_.FullName 'C:\Users\abc\London'}
How can I automate this?

Answer 1

There are multiple ways:
Get-Location
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.management/get-location?view=powershell-7
gci (Get-Location).Path
or simply .\
gci .\
additionaly, gci will default to current path if none is specified. So the following will get the current folder:
gci
Use -LiteralPath in the Move-Item cmdlet.
Move-Item -LiteralPath $sourcePath $destinationPath
I'd do something similar to below:
# Note I'm using -File so it only returns files
$items = gci .\ -Recurse -File -Include *_L*, *_R*, *_P*
foreach($item in $items) {
# Could utilize something cleaner/better but this will do
if($item.Name -like "*_L*") {
Move-Item -LiteralPath $item 'C:\Users\abc\London'
} elseif($item.Name -like "*_R*") {
Move-Item -LiteralPath $item 'C:\Users\abc\Russia'
} elseif ($item.Name -like "*_P*") {
Move-Item -LiteralPath $item 'C:\Users\abc\Poland'
} else {
# Unexpected output
Write-Host "The path did not match what was expected"
Write-Host $item.Name
}
}

Answer 2

Windows 10 64-bit. PowerShell 5.
How to move files based on file basename using PowerShell gci, foreach, if, -like, move-item and -literalpath
Move 0001_ddmmyy_username[active1]_L_kkkkk.pdf to C:\Users\abc\London
Move 0001_ddmmyy_jacky[active1]_R_kkkkk.pdf to C:\Users\abc\Russia
Move 0001_ddmmyy_jim[active1]_P_kkkkk.pdf to C:\Users\abc\Poland
Change $env:userprofile\desktop. Remove -whatif when you are satisfied it works.
$items = gci -recurse -file *_L_*, *_R_*, *_P_*
foreach($item in $items) {
# Change $env:userprofile\desktop
if($item -like "*_L_*") {
Move-Item -LiteralPath $item "$env:userprofile\desktop\London" -whatif
} elseif($item -like "*_R_*") {
Move-Item -LiteralPath $item "$env:userprofile\desktop\Russia" -whatif
} elseif ($item -like '*_P_*') {
Move-Item -LiteralPath $item "$env:userprofile\desktop\Poland" -whatif
}
}
Comments:
With some cmdlets you will get odd results when you use -Path and any part of the full file name contains []. The fix is to use the -LiteralPath parameter. See Get-Help Move-Item -Parameter *path* – Lee_Dailey
How to move files based on file basename using PowerShell gci, foreach, if, -like, move-item and -literalpath