Скачать или смотреть How to Rename Folders in PowerShell by Removing a Character Before Text

Learn how to effectively rename folders in PowerShell by targeting specific characters and replacing them quickly.
---
This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/62261955/ asked by the user 'solag gaming' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/13706262/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/62262025/ provided by the user 'Mathias R. Jessen' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/712649/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

Visit these links for original content and any more details, such as alternate solutions, latest updates/developments on topic, comments, revision history etc. For example, the original title of the Question was: Replace one character in front of text in file name powershell

Also, Content (except music) licensed under CC BY-SA https://meta.stackexchange.com/help/l...
The original Question post is licensed under the 'CC BY-SA 4.0' ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... ) license, and the original Answer post is licensed under the 'CC BY-SA 4.0' ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... ) license.

If anything seems off to you, please feel free to write me at vlogize [AT] gmail [DOT] com.
---
Streamline Your Folder Renaming Process in PowerShell

Managing a large batch of folders can be a daunting task, especially when you're looking to make uniform changes across them. Whether it’s for organizational purposes, clarity, or aesthetics, renaming folders consistently is essential. In this guide, we’ll tackle a common issue: how to remove a specific character from many folder names using PowerShell.

The Problem at Hand

Imagine you have a collection of folders named in the format:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

You want to rename them to a new format, where the dot before "Name" is removed, resulting in:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

This simple change can improve readability and consistency. Thankfully, PowerShell provides a straightforward way to make bulk changes like this through the use of regex (regular expressions).

Solution Overview

To achieve our renaming goal, we’ll use the -replace regex operator in PowerShell. This operator allows you to search for specific patterns in strings and replace them with new text. Here’s how you can do it step-by-step.

Step-by-Step Guide

Open PowerShell: Start by launching the PowerShell application on your computer.

Navigate to the Directory: Before running the renaming script, make sure you are in the correct working directory where the folders are located. You can change the directory using the cd command:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Run the Rename Command: Execute the following command to rename the folders:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Explanation of the Command

Get-ChildItem . -Directory: This part lists all items (in this case, directories) in the current directory.

|: This pipe operator passes the output of the command on its left to the command on its right.

Rename-Item: This cmdlet is used to rename items (in our case, folders).

-NewName: This parameter specifies the new name for the items being renamed.

{$_.Name -replace '(?<=^\d{4}.\d\d.\d\d).',' '}: This code block does the magic!

$_ refers to the current item in the pipeline.

-replace uses a regular expression to identify the period (.) right before the folder name, specified by (?<=^\d{4}.\d\d.\d\d).

The replacement string is a space, effectively removing the . and replacing it with a space.

Conclusion

Now, you have the power to rename your folders quickly and efficiently using PowerShell! This method saves a significant amount of time and eliminates the errors that can occur when renaming folders manually. By mastering the -replace operator, you can tackle numerous similar tasks in the future with confidence.

If you found this guide helpful, share it with other PowerShell users or bookmark it for your future needs. Happy scripting!