I have files that look like this:
2020-0517-example.pdf
2020-0412-example.pdf
2020-0607-example.pdf
I would like to rename the files to:
2020-0723-example.pdf
2020-0723-example.pdf
2020-0723-example.pdf
I would basically be replacing the dates to today's date while keeping the year and the suffix.
If you want to add a bit of sanity checking to make sure you are dealing with dates, you can use pattern matching and then rename the partial date:
$date = Get-Date -Format MMdd
Get-ChildItem -Path <filepath> -File |
Where Basename -match '^(?:19|20)\d\d-(?:0[1-9]|1[012])\d\d-' |
Rename-Item -NewName { $_.Name -replace '(?<=^\d{4}-)\d{4}',$date } -whatif
Alternatively, you can parse the date string first to verify it using TryParseExact:
$date = Get-Date -Format MMdd
Get-ChildItem -Path <filepath> -File |
Where Name -match '^\d{4}-\d{4}-' | Foreach-Object {
if ([datetime]::TryParseExact($_.Name.Substring(0,9),'yyyy-MMdd',[System.Globalization.CultureInfo]::InvariantCulture,[System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles]::None,[ref]0)) {
$FileParts = $_.Name -split '-',3
Rename-Item -Path $_ -NewName ($FileParts[0],$date,$FileParts[2] -join '-') -WhatIf
}
}
You will need to remove the -WhatIf parameter for the rename operation to complete.
Explanation:
Using -split '-',3, we ensure that we are left with no more than three array elements. This provides a predictable number of indexes for putting the file name back together. [0] will be the year. [1] will be the month-day. [2] will be the remainder of the file name.
Please see the following for the -replace and -match regex details:
.ps1 file and run the file by typing out its fully qualified path in the console.You could split by "-" and stitch together with String.Format:
$filename = "2020-0517-example.pdf"
$today = Get-Date
$arr = $filename.Split("-")
$newname = "{0}-{1:MMdd}-{2}" -f $arr[0], $today, $arr[2]
split.