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+--- Thread: Rename only first 4 characters of filename (/thread-14122.html)
Rename only first 4 characters of filename - bmatt8 - Nov-15-2018
Im trying to rename only the first 4 characters of a filename.
Example: rename a045av18.c00 to paav18.c00
The "av18" will change each day so i just want to replace "a045" with "pa" and thats it.
Having a hard time getting this to work. I tried a rename with DOS commands but it doesnt work with a wildcard.
import os
import sys
import re
if __name__ == "__main__":
_, indir = sys.argv
infiles = [f for f in os.listdir(indir) if os.path.isfile(os.path.join(indir
for infile in infiles:
outfile = re.sub(r'pa', r'a045' , infile)
os.rename(os.path.join(indir, infile), os.path.join(indir, outfile))
RE: Rename only first 4 characters of filename - ichabod801 - Nov-15-2018
If you just want to replace the first four characters with 'pa', use:
outfile = 'pa' + infile[4:]Also, line 8 in your posted code is incomplete.
RE: Rename only first 4 characters of filename - nilamo - Nov-15-2018
As far as I know, operating systems don't support partial renames. So renaming just the first part of a file name doesn't make sense. "renaming" a file also doesn't necessarily mean anything, as it's normally just an abstraction over "moving" a file, and you can't move a file without having the full name of the new file.
So instead of thinking about how to change the first 4 characters of a name, try instead to think about changing the file name. From one string, to a different string. From there, all you need to think about is basic string slicing (as ichabod801 demonstrated) to get the new string.