Renaming files in directory using new names from csv file

Question

I'm looking for help in creating a script that can rename all of the files contained in a directory to a table referenced in a csv file. For example, I have a folder with random file names and I also have a csv file with the current file names in column A, and what the actual file name should be changed to in column B.

I thought about using something along the lines of:

get-childitem *pdf -force | foreach { rename-item $_ $_.Name.Replace((Import-Csv -path .\List.csv).filename, (Import-Csv -Path .\List.csv).newfilename) }

Note that filename & newfilename refer to column A and B respectively.

Nothing really happens when I run this script. I'm a novice with powershell so I've come to the limits of my knowledge of how to accomplish this task. Any and all help will be greatly appreciated!

Thank you all!

Answer 1

================ NEW ANSWER WITH A SIMPLE SCRIPT ================

Tested on MacOS:

Just create a file named map.csv and format it like this:

old_file1.txt,new_file1.txt
old_file2.txt,new_file2.txt
old_file3.txt,new_file3.txt

create a shell script rename.sh and change the variables folder_path, csv_file and file_extension:

#!/bin/bash

folder_path="path/to/your/files/"
csv_file="path/to/map/file/map.csv"
file_extension=".jpg"

while IFS=',' read -r old_file new_file
do
  mv "${folder_path}/${old_file}${file_extension}" "${folder_path}/${new_file}${file_extension}"
  echo "File ${old_file}${file_extension} renamed to ${new_file}${file_extension}."
done < "$csv_file"

start the script with sh rename.sh

and enjoy the magic ;-)

Answer 2

You can do the following if you are in the directory that contains the target files and the CSV file. This assumes you have headers in your CSV named filename and newfilename.

$TargetDir = Resolve-Path -Path .
Import-Csv -Path .\List.csv | Foreach-Object {
    $Src = Join-Path -Path $TargetDir -ChildPath $_.filename
    $Dst = Join-Path -Path $TargetDir -ChildPath $_.newfilename
    Rename-Item -Path $Src -NewName $Dst
}

If the target directory is another location, you can simply modify the Join-Path statements to use -Path.

$TargetDir = 'c:\folder'
Import-Csv -Path .\List.csv | Foreach-Object {
    $Src = Join-Path -Path $TargetDir -ChildPath $_.filename
    $Dst = Join-Path -Path $TargetDir -ChildPath $_.newfilename
    Rename-Item -Path $Src -NewName $Dst
}

Note: If the CSV file does not contain headers, you will need to either utilize the -Header switch in Import-Csv like in Glenn's helpful answer or add the column headers to the CSV.

Answer 3

Assuming there's no header in the .csv and it only contains the file names, this might work for you:

# Only import the CSV once
$csvData = Import-Csv .\List.csv -Header "Old","New"

# Remove the -WhatIf after testing
Get-ChildItem | ForEach-Object { 
    $file = $_
    $csvData | Where-Object { 
        $_.Old -eq $file.Name 
    } | ForEach-Object { 
        Rename-Item -Path $file -NewName $_.New -WhatIf 
    } 
}

Or a more concise implementation:

$csvData = Import-Csv .\List.csv -Header "Old","New"
dir | %{ $file = $_; $csvData | ?{ $_.Old -eq $file.Name } | %{ Rename-Item -Path $file -NewName $_.New -WhatIf } }