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PowerShell rename and shorten folder names


Ever want to shorten folder names due to a long or exceeding path?

PowerShell will take it easy to shorten folder names.

For example if you have a folder naming structure of project folder name plus descriptions or generic folder name plus detailed name of the folder.

Example: Images at the beach located in the other side of the world, Photos taken while climbing Mount Everest, 07112015 reports about findings on the walls of the cave under the cemetery, 20150911 metaphors and narratives just about anything, Folder1 photos of the earth, Folder2 images on the south

Obviously, such folder names will easily consume the limitations of the folder path.

To shorten or rename such folders can be done manually if there are only 3 folders but if there are 
hundreds or thousands of such folders can be a huge task and may take a while to do such work.

With the help of PowerShell it can be done automatically.

Here’s the script below, that shows how to mess up with string in PowerShell by shortening folder names.

##=========================================

$get_folder_names=dir d:\ss\ | where-object {$_.PsIsContainer -eq $true}  | select-object name | ft -HideTableHeaders | Out-String
#$get_folder_names


foreach ($str_split_names in $get_folder_names -split '[\r\n]')  {

   
    $xtracted_folder_names=$str_split_names.subString(0, [System.Math]::Min(7, $str_split_names.Length))
    #$xtracted_folder_names
    $var1= "d:\ss\"  + "$str_split_names"
    $var2= $xtracted_folder_names
     rename-item $var1  $var2 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
     Clear-Host
   
}

##========================================= 


What will the script do?

It will read the “ss” folder on drive d and get only 7 characters from its folder name and it will cut or delete the other characters.


Dir in PowerShell is an alias for Get-Childitem

{$_.PsIsContainer -eq $true – get only folders

select-object name | ft -HideTableHeaders | Out-String –-- select or get the folder names on the path specified, hide the table headers and make the output as string

-split '[\r\n]' – split the output array


Before you roll out the script on a production make sure to test it on a test folders to make sure you got the desired output or you will be able to check how the script works.

For example if the folders on path d:\ss  have these folder names:

Folder1 photos of the earth
Folder2 images on the south

After running the script folders will be renamed to:

Folder1
Folder2

That will be the output after running the script.


Cheers… Hope it helps… Enjoy..
 
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Comments

  1. melmorleiJune 25, 2021 at 11:57 AM

    Hi

    Thanks for this script, but it only changes the first folder after G:\ss\, how can you make it change every foldername in G:\ss\, for example, G:\ss\Folder1\Folder3DELETETHIS\Folder4DELETETHIS, to
    G:\ss\Folder1\Folder3\Folder4

    thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sirch_wiredJune 26, 2021 at 9:17 PM

      Revise script below as per your need.
      Assume folder structure:
      c:\tempx\xfolder1\xfolder2\xfolder3\xfolder4\xfolder5
      Output:
      c:\tempx\xfolder1\folde2\folder3\folder4\folder5

      Here's the script:
      $folders= @()

      $folders = Get-ChildItem -Recurse -Directory "C:\tempx\xfolder1"
      $i=0


      $allfolder=""
      $dpreviousfolder=""



      foreach ($folder in $folders) {

      $newFolderName = $folder.Name.Substring(1,7)
      $oldFolderName = $folder.Name.Substring(0,8)

      write-host $folder

      $oldfolder = "C:\tempx\xfolder1\" + $oldFolderName


      $folderPath = "C:\tempx\xfolder1\" + $oldFolderName



      if ( $i -eq "0") {

      rename-item $oldfolder $newFolderName -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

      }

      $global:i++



      if ( $i -gt "0") {

      $dcurrentfolder = $oldFolderName

      $1below = $dpreviousfolder+ $folder+ "\"

      $dpreviousfolder+= $newfolderName + "\"


      rename-item "C:\tempx\xfolder1\$1below" $newfolderName

      }


      }


      $i=0

      $dpreviousfolder=""

      Delete

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