How to ignore brackets in file names when splitting and renaming? - powershell

Question

I have the following PowerShell script that puts all .jpg files found in its subfolders into a 'Scans' folder and renames these .jpg files to match the name of their respective parent directory (=subfolder). When multiple .jpg files exist the renaming process will automatically add a number to the filename, like File_1,jpg and File_2.jpg.
So before the script is run a folder may look like this:
Parent Directory from which script is executed
|
Subfolder (containing .jpg files and the 'Scans' subfolder)
|
Scans (=folder)
Photo.jpg
Picture.jpg
Shot(1).jpg
Shot(2).jpg
Once the script has run the folder looks like this:
Parent Directory from which script is executed
|
Subfolder (containing the 'Scans' subfolder)
|
Scans (=folder containing supposed to contain all .jpg files)
|
Subfolder_1.jpg
Subfolder_2.jpg
Shot(1) (=file moved but extension stripped)
Shot(2) (=file not moved and extension stripped)
So the .jpg files containing parenthesis 'Shot(1).jpg' and 'Shot(2).jpg' are not properly renamed and moved to the 'Scans' folder. In fact their '.jpg' extension is stripped off.
The script works fine as long as the .jpg files do not contain any parentheses (()), as in
'Shot(1).jpg' and 'Shot(2).jpg' → when multiple .jpg files exist
'Pics(2001).jpg' → when the subfolder name contains parentheses as in 'Pics(2001)', the .jpg is correctly renamed, but then contains parentheses and the script would fail again when run a second time.
I have read about escaping special characters in other threads but have not been able to implement a solution into the script below. Does anybody here have a solution so that the parentheses are not causing any issues when moving and renaming these .jpg files?
$path = Split-Path -parent $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Definition
function renamePhotos {
# Loop through all directories
$dirs = dir $path -Recurse | Where { $_.psIsContainer -eq $true }
foreach ($dir In $dirs) {
$i = 1
$newdir = $dir.parent.name + "_"
$images = Get-ChildItem -Path $dir.fullname -Filter *.jpg -Recurse
foreach ($image In $images) {
$split = $image.name.split(".jpg")
$replace = $split[0] -Replace $split[0],($newdir + $i + ".jpg")
$image_string = $image.fullname.ToString().Trim()
Rename-Item "$image_string" "$replace"
$i++
Move-Item -Path $dir\*.jpg -Destination $dir\Scans
}
}
}
# RUN SCRIPT
renamePhotos
"SCRIPT FINISHED"

Answer 1

The -replace operator does a regular expression replacement. If you want to use it you need to escape special characters in your source string:
-replace [regex]::Escape($split[0]), "$newdir$i.jpg"
However, you don't need that in the first place. Simply use the appropriate properties of the FileInfo objects:
$images = Get-ChildItem -Path $dir.fullname -Filter *.jpg -Recurse
foreach ($image in $images) {
$newname = $newdir + $i + $image.Extension
Rename-Item $image.FullName $newname
$i++
}
Move-Item -Path $dir\*.jpg -Destination $dir\Scans
Or simply move the items to the new location with their new name without renaming them first:
$images = Get-ChildItem -Path $dir.fullname -Filter *.jpg -Recurse
foreach ($image in $images) {
$newname = $newdir + $i + $image.Extension
Move-Item $image.FullName "$dir\Scans\$newname"
$i++
}