Extract date from a path in powershell - powershell

Question

I have a folder called files which has a path like : C:\users\xxxx\desktop\files
Inside this folder are different folders: 2015-12-02, 2015-12-01, 2015-11-30, etc
Inside each folder there are multiple files. I was looking to append the folder date at the end of each file inside the folder. I have written the below script for that:
function checkfile($file) {
$filenm = $file.FullName
return($filenm.Contains('.txt'))
}
function renamefile($file) {
$filenm = $file.Name
$ip = $file.FullName.Substring(34)
$ip1 = $ip.Substring(1,4) + $ip.Substring(6,2) + $ip.Substring(9,2)
$txt = $filenm.Split(".")[1] + "_" + $file.name.Split(".")[3] + "_" + $file.name.Split(".")[4] + "." + $file.name.Split(".")[2] + "." + $ip1
Rename-Item $file.FullName -NewName $txt
}
$sourcepath = "C:\users\xxxx\desktop\files"
$inputfiles = (Get-ChildItem -Path $sourcepath -Recurse) | Where-Object { checkfile $_ }
foreach ($inputfile in $inputfiles) {
renamefile $inputfiles
}
The problem I'm facing is in the above script I have used substring(34) to extract the date from the file path. If for some reason the source path changes (to say : H:\powershell\scripts\files) then 34 will not work.
How can I extract the correct date from the file path irrespective of the full file path?

Answer 1

Why not:
$sourcepath = "C:\users\xxxx\desktop\files"
Get-ChildItem -Path $sourcepath -Include "*.txt" -Recurse | % {
Rename-Item $_ "$($_.BaseName)_$($_.Directory)$($_.Extension)"
}
BaseName is the file name without the extension
Directory is the directory name (your date)
Extension is the file extension (i.e. .txt)
$(...) is used to make sure ... is evaluated properly
% is an alias for ForEach-Object and will iterate over the objects coming from the pipeline.
$_ will hold the current object in the ForEach loop
Here, your checkfile function is replaced by -Include "*.txt".
Example :
C:\users\xxxx\desktop\files\2015-12-02\sample.txt
becomes
C:\users\xxxx\desktop\files\2015-12-02\sample_2015-12-02.txt
Not sure if you need it, but if you want to remove the dashes from the date, you could use:
Rename-Item $_ "$($_.BaseName)_$($_.Directory -replace '-','')$($_.Extension)"
EDIT : OP wished to remove the dashes but append the date after the file extension, so:
$sourcepath = "C:\users\xxxx\desktop\files"
Get-ChildItem -Path $sourcepath -Include "*.txt" -Recurse | % {
Rename-Item $_ "$($_.Name).$($_.Directory.Name -replace '-', '')"
}

Answer 2

The particulars of the problem aren't entirely clear. I gather that the date your are interested in is in the fullpath. You want to extract the date from the path and rename the file, such that the new filename includes that date at the end.
However your script implies that there are at least five periods in the path. But I don't see that mentioned in the OP anywhere.
So there are a few problems and open items I see:
1. What is the syntax of a full path? That includes the five or more periods
2. Will the date always be at the same directory depth? I'm guessing xxxx represents the date. If so the date is the second subdirectory. Will the date always be in the second subdirectory?
3. Related to #2, will there ever be paths that include two or more dates?
Assuming my guesses are correct AND that the date will always be the second subdirectory, then extracting the date would be:
`$dateString = $file.fullpath.split('\')[3]
If some of my guesses are incorrect then please add details to the OP. If #3 is true then you'll need to also explain how to know which date is the correct date to use.

Answer 3

An option that you could do is just cd to each path. Then use Get-ChildItem in each dir, without using -Recurse.
In rename $ip would just be $file, no need for FullName.
For example, define your functions and then:
$sourcefile = 'Whateversourcediris'
cd $sourcefile
$directories = (Get-ChildItem)
foreach ($direct in $directories) {
cd $direct
$inputfiles = (Get-ChildItem)|where-object{checkfile $_}
foreach ($inputfile in $inputfiles) {
renamefile $inputfile
}
cd..
}
Hope this helps.