Moving Files to Folders with Powershell and RegEx - powershell

Question

I wrote the following script to batch process the files in to folders based on the title of the magazine (everything before the first hyphen):
magazine title - year-month.pdf eg National Geographic - 2017-07.pdf
After running the script the magazine(s) are moved from the parent folder to a new sub folder, in this case "National Geographic Magazine".
Three related questions:
The '_Orphans' folder (line 38) is created even if there are no 'orphans'
to file in to it for later manual processing. How do I make the folder
creation conditional?
Duplicate files create an error message during processing. Not a big deal as the script continues to run, but I'd like to handle duplicates the same way 'orphans' are handled, with a new "_Duplicates" folder/move.
How do I comment multiple lines without the # at the beginning of each
line (as at the top of the script, for example). There must be a more elegant
way to handle comments/documentation...?
Bonus Question:
If you're really bored waiting for that multi-TB file copy
you're watching progress like an hour glass, could anyone help with the code
for an array of delimiters (wrong term/name probably) as shown on line 10? I'd
like to be able to specify more than just the hard-coded hyphen I used in my
regex match (line 26, which took me the better part of a day to get working).
$OrigFolder = ".\"
$NewFolder = ".\_Sorted to Move"
# Orphans folder, where files that return null in the regex match will be moved
# Example: file "- title.pdf"
# will be moved to ".\_Orphans" folder
$Orphans = '_Orphans' # Use the underscore to sort the folder to the top of the window
#### How to use an array of values for the delimiters in the regex instead of literals
#### My proposed code, but I am missing how to use the delims in the regex match
#### $delims = "\s-\s" ",\s"\s and\s"
# First count the number of files in the $OrigFolder directory
$numFiles = (Get-ChildItem -Path $OrigFolder).Count
$i=0
# Tell the user what will happen
clear-host;
Write-Host 'This script will copy ' $numFiles ' files from ' $OrigFolder ' to _Sorted to Move'
# Ask user to confirm the copy operation
Read-host -prompt 'Press enter to start copying the files'
# Regex to match filenames
$Regex = [regex]"(?:(.*?)\s-)|(?:(.*?),\s)|(?:(.*?)\sand\s)"
# Loop through the $OrigFolder directory, skipping folders
Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $OrigFolder | Where-Object {!$_.PsIsContainer} |
ForEach-Object {
if($_.BaseName -match $Regex){
$ChildPath = $_.BaseName -replace $Regex
#Caluclate copy operation progress as a percentage
[int]$percent = $i / $numFiles * 100
# If first part of the file name is empty, move it to the '_Orphans' folder
if(!$Matches[1]){
$ChildPath = $Orphans}
else {
$ChildPath = $Matches[1]
}
# Generate new folder name
$FolderName = Join-Path -Path $NewFolder -ChildPath ($ChildPath + ' Magazine')
# Create folder if it doesn't exist
if(!(Test-Path -LiteralPath $FolderName -PathType Container)){
$null = New-Item -Path $FolderName -ItemType Directory}
# Log progress to the screen
Write-Host "$($_.FullName) -> $FolderName"
# Move the file to the folder
Move-Item -LiteralPath $_.FullName -Destination $FolderName
# Tell the user how much has been moved
Write-Progress -Activity "Copying ... ($percent %)" -status $_ -PercentComplete $percent -verbose
$i++
}
}
Write-Host 'Total number of files in '$OrigFolder ' is ' $numFiles
Write-Host 'Total number of files copied to '$NewFolder ' is ' $i
Read-host -prompt "Press enter to complete..."
clear-host;

Answer 1

Q1: I tested your script on my machine with PDFs that followed the same naming scheme and it didn't create an Orphans folder or move my Orphan PDFs. I noticed you have a if ($_.BaseName -match $Regex) immediately after your foreach. Inside that is where you are looking for Orphans, but orphans wouldn't make it into this if block because they wouldn't match the Regex. In pseudocode, you structure should be something like:
foreach{
if (match)
{$childpath $_.BaseName -replace $Regex}
else
{Childpath = $Orphans}
Create your folders and do your moves.
}
Q2: Try, Catch blocks: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/heyscriptingguy/2014/07/05/weekend-scripter-using-try-catch-finally-blocks-for-powershell-error-handling/
Q3: You can comment multiple lines by enclosing them in <# #> pairs.
<#
How to use an array of values for the delimiters in the regex instead of literals
My proposed code, but I am missing how to use the delims in the regex match
$delims = "\s-\s" ",\s"\s and\s"
#>