Using Powershell to move documents to a folder based on file name - powershell

Question

I have searched your database for answers and find things that are similar, but not quite what I am needing. I do not know how to code well enough to take some of the examples and modify them to fit my needs.
I have documents that I need to move to a folder that has the same name as the beginning of the document name. Here are a couple of example of my document names (ParcelNum_CountyNum_Year_DocType.pdf)
188777_014_2013_NOAV.pdf
242353_227_2014_HRGNOTICE.pdf
R506275_246_2013_NOAV.pdf
I currently have the documents residing in a single folder named by the county number (the 3 digit number between the first _ and the 2nd _)
I have folders created that are named by the ParcelNum, which is the first set of characters/numbers at the beginning and before the first _. I need Powershell to read the first portion of the document name stopping at the first _ and place it in the folder that matches that numchar.
So for example the first document example above is named 188777_014_2013_NOAV.pdf and resides at the root of the CountyNum folder named 014.
For that example, I would need it to be moved from the root folder 014, into its subfolder named 188777.
I hope that makes sense. Please feel free to ask questions.
Thank you,

Answer 1

Here's what I would do. This is under the assumption that the files you want to move are in a parent folder and the root & sub folders you want to sort them to are also in the same folder, i.e. if the example PDF's path is C:\test\Docs\188777_014_2013_NOAV.pdf and you want it to end up in C:\test\Docs\014\188777.
Update the path in the $basePath variable to your liking. Comments are included above each step with explanations. Enjoy!
# This is the parent directory for the files and sorted folders
$basePath = "C:\test\Docs"
# This sets that folder as your CWD (Current working directory)
Set-Location $basePath
# This grabs the *files* underneath the parent directory, ignoring sub directories
$files = Get-ChildItem $basePath | Where-Object {$_.PSIsContainer -eq $false}
# Starts iterating through each file
foreach ($file in $files) {
# Split the base file name by underscore (creates an array with each part of the name seperated)
$split = $file.BaseName -split "_"
# Store the second item [1] in the array $split as the root folder name
$root = "$basePath\$($split[1])"
# Store the first item [0] in the array $split as the sub folder name
$sub = "$root\$($split[0])"
# Check if the root folder exists, create it if not
if (!(Test-Path $root -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)) {
New-Item $root -ItemType Directory | Out-Null
}
# Check if the sub folder exists, create it if not
if (!(Test-Path $sub -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)) {
New-Item $sub -ItemType Directory | Out-Null
}
# Move the file to the sub folder
Move-Item $file.FullName -Destination $sub -Verbose
}

Answer 2

Tried to solve your problem:
#Requires -Version 4.0
function Move-FileToDirectoryWithSamePrefix
{
[CmdletBinding()]
Param(
[Parameter(Mandatory = $true, Position = 0)]
[ValidateScript( {Test-Path $_ -PathType Container})]
[string]
$DirectoryToMoveFileTo,
[Parameter(Mandatory = $true, Position = 1)]
[ValidateScript( {Test-Path $_ -PathType Container})]
[string]
$DirectoryToSearchFiles
)
Begin {
# Needed to find all files for movement
$fileRegex = ".*_[0-9]{3}_[0-9]{4}_.*\.pdf"
$currentLocation = Get-Location
}
Process{
# find files to move
$matchingFile = Get-ChildItem -Path $DirectoryToSearchFiles -Recurse | Where-Object { $_.Name -match $fileRegex }
# Change to destination directory
Set-Location $DirectoryToMoveFileTo
foreach ($file in $matchingFile) {
$directoryName = ($file -split "_")[0]
# Find the director to move to
$dirToMoveFile = Get-ChildItem -Recurse -Include $directoryName
if ($dirToMoveFile -eq $null) {
# Create directory if not existing
$dirToMoveFile = New-Item -Name $directoryName -Path $DirectoryToMoveFileTo -ItemType Directory
}
Move-Item -Path $file.FullName -Destination $dirToMoveFile.fullName
}
}
End{
Set-Location $currentLocation
}
}
Store above in a ps1 file, e.g. moveFile.ps1. Afterwards open a PowerShell and source the file:
PS C:\> . C:\PathToYourPs1File\moveFile.ps1
Afterwards you can the function like:
PS C:\temp> Move-FileToDirectoryWithSamePrefix -DirectoryToMoveFileTo .\filesDestination -DirectoryToSearchFiles .\files
If you need to debug it open the ps1 in the Powershell ISE, set a breakpoint and start the script. For further information see this link.
Hope that helps.