Looking for a way to trim first 5 character places off of a bunch of file names named
01 - filename.mp3 so that the file is trimmed to a name of filename.mp3 without the 01(space)-(space) before the song title.

I saw a program for sale called better file rename for $20, but was WONDERING if anyone knew of a way to do it for free through batch using a read in file name and then trim and rename as filename without the first 5 characters leading into the file name? I dont see why batch wouldnt be able to do it, but this exceeds my batching abilities, so a solution would be a learning experience if you could also describe what does what in the batch.

I have about 3000 SONGS that I want to trim this off of, so I am not sure if there is a way to read in with wildcard *.mp3 for all files in that directory and have it CHUG through them until they are all renamed without first 5 characters that always start with 01(space)-(space), 02(space)-(space) ect where the leading 2 digits is the track number so maybe ??(space)-(space) can be used as a wildcard type match for the files to test against them, or if the test would be to look for a dash ( - ) at the 4th character place of each file name and if there is a dash at the 4th character place, then trim first 5 character places off of the filename with a read in of that files name, trim, and rename?

Thanks.Try this.  It's not fully tested so instead of renaming the files it will copy them to your %temp% folder from which they can be deleted at will.  When you have tested and proved the script, change the copy line to
ren "!filename!" "!newfilename!"

Code: [Select]echo off
cls
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion

:: Set default directory to the directory containing .mp3 files
pushd path\to\files\|| echo PUSHD FAILED - job terminated&exit /b

:: Loop thru' a bare directory listing of mp3 files, reading each filename
:: into the environment variable %filename%, creating a new environment
:: variable %newfilename% containing %filename% less the first 5 chars
:: then renaming..

for /f "tokens=*" %%1 in ('dir /b *.mp3') do (
    set filename=%%1
    set newfilename=!filename:~5!
    copy "!filename!" "%temp%\!newfilename!"
    )

popd

Quote from: DaveLembke on August 22, 2010, 11:45:34 AM

Looking for a way to trim first 5 character places off of a bunch of file names named
01 - filename.mp3 so that the file is trimmed to a name of filename.mp3 without the 01(space)-(space) before the song title.

I saw a program for sale called better file rename for $20, but was wondering if anyone knew of a way to do it for free through batch using a read in file name and then trim and rename as filename without the first 5 characters leading into the file name? I dont see why batch wouldnt be able to do it, but this exceeds my batching abilities, so a solution would be a learning experience if you could also describe what does what in the batch.

I have about 3000 songs that I want to trim this off of, so I am not sure if there is a way to read in with wildcard *.mp3 for all files in that directory and have it chug through them until they are all renamed without first 5 characters that always start with 01(space)-(space), 02(space)-(space) ect where the leading 2 digits is the track number so maybe ??(space)-(space) can be used as a wildcard type match for the files to test against them, or if the test would be to look for a dash ( - ) at the 4th character place of each file name and if there is a dash at the 4th character place, then trim first 5 character places off of the filename with a read in of that files name, trim, and rename?

Thanks.

For renaming versatility, I cannot recommend a program more than ExplorerXP -- it can trim, stuff, replace and renumber multiple files.

Looking for a way to trim first 5 character places off of a bunch of file names.