Powershell - Create a folder from a file name, then place that file in the folder

Question

I have a list of files say...

T123_Product_1.jpg
T123_Product_2.jpg
T123_Product_3.jpg
T456_Product_1.jpg
T456_Product_2.jpg
T456_Product_3.jpg 

etc. etc. etc. for about 900 more files

What I am needing to do is create a folder based on the characters before the first underscore, but to not repeat it since there are multiple files.

So in the example above, I would only want two folders named T123 and T456.

Then I would need the script to place the appropriate files in the folder.

I had found some codes in this thread, but they don't exactly do what I'm looking for.

https://superuser.com/questions/306890/windows-batch-script-to-create-folder-for-each-file-in-a-directory-name-it-tha

    $Files = Get-ChildItem -Path 'C:\Info\AUGUST 2011\Checklists\' -Filter 'DET1__*'
$Files | ForEach-Object {
    $FileFullName = $_.FullName
    $TempFileName = "$($FileFullName).tmp"
    $DestinationFileName = "$FileFullName\$($_.Name)"
    Move-Item $FileFullName $TempFileName
    New-Item -Path $FileFullName -ItemType Directory
    Move-Item $TempFileName $DestinationFileName
}

Any help?

Answer 1

The easiest way here would be to group the files by the first part, which will then become the directory name. In typical PowerShell pipeline manner this is fairly succinct:

Get-ChildItem -File |  # Get files
  Group-Object { $_.Name -replace '_.*' } |  # Group by part before first underscore
  ForEach-Object {
    # Create directory
    $dir = New-Item -Type Directory -Name $_.Name
    # Move files there
    $_.Group | Move-Item -Destination $dir
  }

Answer 2

$directory="c:\temp\"

#explicit and long version
Get-ChildItem -File -Path $directory -Filter "*.jpg" | 
ForEach-Object {
New-Item -ItemType Directory "$directory$($_.Name.Split("_")[0])" -Force;   
Move-Item -Path $_.FullName -Destination  "$directory$($_.Name.Split("_")[0])\$($_.Name)"      
}

#short version 
gci -File -Path $directory -Fi "*.jpg" | 
%{ ni -ItemType Directory "$directory$($_.Name.Split("_")[0])" -Force;mvi $_.FullName "$directory$($_.Name.Split("_")[0])\$($_.Name)" }

Answer 3

Also try.

cd <path to your folder>
  $files = Get-ChildItem -file;
  ForEach ($file in $files)
  {
    $folder = New-Item -type directory -name ($file.BaseName -replace "_.*");
    Move-Item $file.FullName $folder.FullName;
  }

You can use the Substring method on the $file.BaseName as well.

cd <path to your folder>
$files = Get-ChildItem -file;
ForEach ($file in $files)
{
  $fileName = $file.BaseName;
  $folder = New-Item -type directory -name $fileName.Substring(0, $fileName.Length-10);
  Move-Item $file.FullName $folder.FullName;
}

The same posted here with explanation.