Batch Script merging PDFs with pdftk

Question

Thanks in advance for any help given.

After searching through all relative threads and google search I'm stumped on finding a solution to output a variable name for merging two PDFs.

So I have hundreds of PDFs I need to combine (two at a time) in a folder c:/test

The files are set out like below

Company Name Invoice No 123456
Company Name Invoice No 123456 details

Now I have managed to move two files at a time to a different folder and merge them but can't seem to get the desrired output name I'm after which is to put a week ending date in front (or at the end, not fussed) of the first merged filename. Below is the code I have thus far which works but the output file name is blank but gets created.

Very new to batch scripting and would appreciate any help :)

@echo off

setlocal enableextensions enabledelayedexpansion
set pdftk=C:\Program Files (x86)\PDFtk Server\bin\pdftk.exe

set Source=C:\test
set Target=C:\test\test2
set num=2
set filenumber=1

for /F "tokens=1,2 delims=:" %%f in ('dir /b /a-d "%source%\*.pdf"  ^|     findstr /n "^" ') do (
    if %%f leq %num% (
        copy "%source%\%%g" "%target%" /y > nul 
    ) else goto endCopy
)

:endCopy
endlocal
for /F "tokens=1,2 delims=:" %%f in ('dir /b /a-d "%target%\*.pdf"  ^|      findstr /n "^" ') do (
    if %%f leq %filenumber% ( set file=%%~nA
   )
)
pdftk *.pdf cat output we_19_9_2017_%file%.pdf

Answer 1

In endCopy you are trying to get the name of A whereas you are iterating with f. Use set file=%%~nf to set the name of file or set file=%%~ng for second file.

And move endlocal at the end to expand !file! at the end of script like this (note the !):

:endCopy
set "cmd=dir /b /a-d "%target%\*.pdf" ^| findstr /n "^""
for /F "tokens=1,2 delims=:" %%f in ('%cmd%') do if %%f leq %filenumber% set file=%%~nf

pdftk *.pdf cat output we_19_9_2017_!file!.pdf
endlocal

Read more about DelayedExpansion at: https://ss64.com/nt/delayedexpansion.html

Answer 2

The last command doesn't use the target folder for the input files and thus looks for the input files in the current folder, so either include the path or first change to the target path.

Also you set a path-variable for pdftk but don't use it.
If this path isn't included in the %path% it can't be find.

Try this (untested)

@echo off
setlocal enableextensions enabledelayedexpansion
set "pdftk=C:\Program Files (x86)\PDFtk Server\bin\pdftk.exe"

set "Source=C:\test"
set "Target=C:\test\test2"
set num=2
set filenumber=1

for /F "tokens=1,2 delims=:" %%f in (
    'dir /b /a-d "%source%\*.pdf" ^| findstr /n "^" '
) do if %%f leq %num% (
    copy "%source%\%%g" "%target%" /y > nul 
) else goto endCopy

:endCopy
endlocal
for /F "tokens=1,2 delims=:" %%f in (
    'dir /b /a-d "%target%\*.pdf" ^|findstr /n "^" '
) do if %%f leq %filenumber% set file=%%~nf

PushD "%Target%"
"%pdftk%" *.pdf cat output we_19_9_2017_%file%.pdf
PopD