Rename files in a folder named using windows explorer

[hitoxman]

Hi everyone,

Many of us know we can rename multiple files with windows explorer following the steps here:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-rename-multiple-files-in-windows-xp-with-windows-explorer-e0a7499f-6cd2-5147-3ce6-7748b6dd0dcb#:~:text=Select%20multiple%20files%20in%20a,name%2C%20and%20then%20press%20ENTER.

I have a folder that already contains many files named using the above way.

Now I need to delete some files in that folder. Instead of repeating the steps again manually, can I have a Python code to help me automatically update the names? For example, if there are 3 files named as: XYZ (1), XYZ (2) and XYZ (3). If XYZ (1) is deleted, I want the remaining two files to be renamed as XYZ (1) and XYZ (2) which reflects a new continuous order.

[Pedroski55]

You can rename files using the Python module os. Just look up os.rename().

You probably should first check whether or not a file with the new name exists.

import os

old_name = r"E:\demos\files\reports\details.txt"
new_name = r"E:\demos\files\reports\new_details.txt"

if os.path.isfile(new_name):
    print("The file already exists")
else:
    # Rename the file
    os.rename(old_name, new_name)

The next part for you is trickier. I would think you should first delete all the files you don't want.

Then you can locate all file names containing XYZ( like below.

I have a lot of files that have the format correctAnswers_Week1.txt

import glob
path2files = '/home/pedro/summer2023/21BE/correctAnswersCW/correctAnswers_Week*'
myfiles = glob.glob(path2files)
for f in myfiles:
    print(f)

Let's say you have a file XYZ(2).txt as the first remaining XYZ file you could change the name like this

f = 'XYZ(2).txt'
part_name = f.split('(')
new_name = part_name + '(' + str(count) + ').txt'
os.rename(f, new_name)

Then you can use a loop change the names.

myfiles.sort()
count = 1
for f in myfiles:
    part_name = f.split('(')
    new_name = part_name + '(' + str(count) + ').txt'
    os.rename(f, new_name)
    count +=1

BUT, if your XYZ files have numbers greater that 9 the order will be wrong, because XYZ(10).txt will come before XYZ(2).txt

You could avoid that by counting the length of the string name.

If f = 'XYZ(2).txt' then len(f) = 10 so skip the file if len(f) > 10

Change the longer file names later in the loop.

But, if you don't have file names with numbers > 9, no problem.

I'm sure the experts here know better ways to do this, but this may give you some ideas!

[hitoxman]

Hi Pedroski55, many thanks for your help. The folder contains files with various names instead of XYZ :) So the loop may need to go through each file name to check.

I am not familiar with Python - not sure how this interesting task can be accomplished in Python.

[deanhystad]

What do you want the program to do? Should the program delete a selected file and rename any associated files? Should the program rename any files that end with (X) to remove any gaps in X? Do you want to provide a pattern it should use when searching for files (python resequence.py "XYZ.txt") or should it look at all files in a folder?