Participant

Answered

Batch Rename String Substitution

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
September 29, 2021
3 replies
3491 views

I am currently looking to rename/rearrance a file name as a batch but I am not familiar with Reg Ex to know what to use for string substitution. So here is my delima. I have file names with similar structure. Below is original filename and then what I would like for it to be. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Orginal Filename structure:

A-1LastnameFirstname1211.pdf

Wanted Result:

Lastname, Firstname [1211].pdf

The number at end will be different for each file name.

Scripting

Correct answer Stephen Marsh

Try the following regular expression find/replace:

Find:

(^.{3})([A-Z].+?)([A-Z].+?)(\d+)(\.[^\.]+$)

or

(^.+-\d+)([A-Z].+?)([A-Z].+?)(\d+)(\.[^\.]+$)

or

(^.+\d+)([A-Z].+?)([A-Z].+?)(\d+)(\.[^\.]+$)

Replace:

$2, $3 [$4]$5

J

jnwbr

Inspiring

I'm trying to figure out getting rid of the _0001_ sequence number before the Filename of files such as:

_0002_CatInTheHat.jpg

What would be the string substitution I would need get rid of the _0002_ where the 2 is sequential up to double digits?

Kukurykus

Legend

[_\d]+ // Original Filename and only Use Regular Expression

J

jnwbr

Inspiring

Excellent. Thank you!

Kukurykus

Legend

'A-1LastnameFirstname1211.pdf'.replace(/(.{3})([A-Z]\w*)([A-Z]\w*)(\d{4})/g, '$2,$3 [$4]')

Stephen Marsh

Community Expert

I didn't see the scripting tag, so assumed that this would be a simple Batch Rename task.

@Kukurykus – just to be clear, that is just code snippet, yes?

Kukurykus

Legend

Yes, the user should use it for activeDocument.activeLayer.name

Stephen Marsh

Correct answer

Community Expert

Try the following regular expression find/replace:

Find:

(^.{3})([A-Z].+?)([A-Z].+?)(\d+)(\.[^\.]+$)

or

(^.+-\d+)([A-Z].+?)([A-Z].+?)(\d+)(\.[^\.]+$)

or

(^.+\d+)([A-Z].+?)([A-Z].+?)(\d+)(\.[^\.]+$)

Replace:

$2, $3 [$4]$5

S

sportshooterAuthor

Participant

Stephen, you're awesome! This appears to work with the file naming formats I'm having to work with and should save me a lot of time that I don't have trying to figure out RegEx syntax. I greatly appreciate it!

Stephen Marsh

Community Expert

@sportshooter – You're welcome!

Are you using this regex with the Batch Rename or in a script?

As you can see from my three examples and the one from @Kukurykus there are different equivalent regex searches that may or may not work depending on how your data may vary. You need to know your own data! It is very hard to write a robust or bullet proof regex with only a sinlge example pattern, as there will likely be exceptions/variances. One can write a very "tight" search pattern, or make it more flexible.

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