Batch-rename files • gerp

library(gerp)
library(purrr)
library(fs)
library(dplyr)

This vignette covers the ger_batch_rename()–a function that gives you the ability to rename a folder of files in standardized format.

Test files

A folder of filenames are available in the gerp package to demonstrate (below we’ll copy them to a temporary folder)

tmp_dir <- tempdir()
tmp_files <- fs::as_fs_path(paste0(tmp_dir, "/", "filenames"))
# copy
fs::dir_copy(
  path = system.file("filenames", package = "gerp"), 
  new_path = tmp_files)

Confirm this with gerp::ger_path()

# confirm
gerp::ger_path(
  path = paste0(tmp_dir, "/", "filenames"), 
  tree = TRUE)
#> /tmp/RtmpRYjGHj/filenames
#> ├── JW7d^(2sl@deletethisandyourcareerisoverWx2*.txt
#> ├── Joe's Filenames Use Space and Punctuation.xlsx
#> ├── fig 2.png
#> ├── figure 1.png
#> └── myabstract.docx

`ger_batch_rename()`

The files in the temporary filenames/ folder are a mess, and I want to rename them using a standardized format. Renaming files manually can be time-consuming, so I’ve written a handy function that will get you 90% there (and pull all the files in a standardized format):

all file names are converted to lower snakecase
all punctuation and special characters have been removed from file names
file names have a date prefix (the birth date, but other options include "modification", "access", or "change")

I’ll demonstrate below:

gerp::ger_batch_rename(path = tmp_files, prefix = "birth")

And confirm with gerp::ger_path()

# confirm
gerp::ger_path(
  path = paste0(tmp_dir, "/", "filenames"), 
  tree = TRUE)
#> /tmp/RtmpRYjGHj/filenames
#> ├── 2023-04-10_fig-2.png
#> ├── 2023-04-10_figure-1.png
#> ├── 2023-04-10_joe-s-filenames-use-space-and-punctuation.xlsx
#> ├── 2023-04-10_jw-7-d-2-sl-deletethisandyourcareerisover-wx-2.txt
#> └── 2023-04-10_myabstract.docx

The following sections of this vignette walk through each step to give a better picture of how ger_batch_rename() works.

Step by step

I’ll create another tmp_files path with the original (messy) file names:

tmp_dir <- tempdir()
tmp_files <- fs::as_fs_path(paste0(tmp_dir, "/", "filenames"))
# copy
fs::dir_copy(
  path = system.file("filenames", package = "gerp"), 
  new_path = tmp_files)

And confirm this with fs::dir_tree()

# confirm
fs::dir_tree(tmp_dir)
#> /tmp/RtmpRYjGHj
#> ├── file19b7185ace52
#> └── filenames
#>     ├── JW7d^(2sl@deletethisandyourcareerisoverWx2*.txt
#>     ├── Joe's Filenames Use Space and Punctuation.xlsx
#>     ├── fig 2.png
#>     ├── figure 1.png
#>     └── myabstract.docx

Get tibble of file names

get_files_tbl() creates a tibble of file paths, names, and date variables:

files_tmp <- get_files_tbl(path = tmp_files)
glimpse(files_tmp)
#> Rows: 5
#> Columns: 9
#> $ file_path      <chr> "/tmp/RtmpRYjGHj/filenames/JW7d^(2sl@deletethisandyourc…
#> $ file_folder    <chr> "/tmp/RtmpRYjGHj/filenames", "/tmp/RtmpRYjGHj/filenames…
#> $ file_full_name <chr> "JW7d^(2sl@deletethisandyourcareerisoverWx2*.txt", "Joe…
#> $ file_extension <chr> ".txt", ".xlsx", ".png", ".png", ".docx"
#> $ file_name      <chr> "JW7d^(2sl@deletethisandyourcareerisoverWx2*", "Joe's F…
#> $ modification   <date> 2023-04-10, 2023-04-10, 2023-04-10, 2023-04-10, 2023-04…
#> $ access         <date> 2023-04-10, 2023-04-10, 2023-04-10, 2023-04-10, 2023-0…
#> $ change         <date> 2023-04-10, 2023-04-10, 2023-04-10, 2023-04-10, 2023-0…
#> $ birth          <date> 2023-04-10, 2023-04-10, 2023-04-10, 2023-04-10, 2023-0…

files_tmp$file_full_name[1]
#> [1] "JW7d^(2sl@deletethisandyourcareerisoverWx2*.txt"

Date prefix

Decide which date to use ("modification", "access", "change", or "birth")

The date_prefix column will be added to the cleaned column names.

file_date_tmp <- get_date_prefix(files = files_tmp)
glimpse(file_date_tmp)
#> Rows: 5
#> Columns: 6
#> $ file_path      <chr> "/tmp/RtmpRYjGHj/filenames/JW7d^(2sl@deletethisandyourc…
#> $ file_folder    <chr> "/tmp/RtmpRYjGHj/filenames", "/tmp/RtmpRYjGHj/filenames…
#> $ file_full_name <chr> "JW7d^(2sl@deletethisandyourcareerisoverWx2*.txt", "Joe…
#> $ file_extension <chr> ".txt", ".xlsx", ".png", ".png", ".docx"
#> $ file_name      <chr> "JW7d^(2sl@deletethisandyourcareerisoverWx2*", "Joe's F…
#> $ date_prefix    <chr> "2023-04-10_", "2023-04-10_", "2023-04-10_", "2023-04-1…

file_date_tmp$date_prefix[1]
#> [1] "2023-04-10_"

Clean file name

The clean_file_name has been formatted to include the date_prefix, lower-snakecase, and all punctuation/special characters have been removed.

clean_tbl <- get_clean_file_names(file_date_tmp, file_name)
glimpse(clean_tbl)
#> Rows: 5
#> Columns: 4
#> $ clean_file_name <chr> "2023-04-10_jw-7-d-2-sl-deletethisandyourcareerisover-…
#> $ clean_file_path <chr> "/tmp/RtmpRYjGHj/filenames/2023-04-10_jw-7-d-2-sl-dele…
#> $ file_full_name  <chr> "JW7d^(2sl@deletethisandyourcareerisoverWx2*.txt", "Jo…
#> $ file_path       <chr> "/tmp/RtmpRYjGHj/filenames/JW7d^(2sl@deletethisandyour…

clean_tbl$clean_file_name[1]
#> [1] "2023-04-10_jw-7-d-2-sl-deletethisandyourcareerisover-wx-2.txt"
clean_tbl$file_full_name[1]
#> [1] "JW7d^(2sl@deletethisandyourcareerisoverWx2*.txt"

NOTE: ger_batch_rename() can’t change the content of the file names (and you wouldn’t want it to).

Rename all files

Now we place the new and old names in their own vectors and pass them to rename_all_files():

new_names <- clean_tbl[['clean_file_path']]
old_names <- clean_tbl[['file_path']]

rename_all_files(old = old_names, new = new_names)

We can confirm a final time with gerp::ger_path():

gerp::ger_path(
  path = paste0(tmp_dir, "/", "filenames"), 
  tree = TRUE)
#> /tmp/RtmpRYjGHj/filenames
#> ├── 2023-04-10_fig-2.png
#> ├── 2023-04-10_figure-1.png
#> ├── 2023-04-10_joe-s-filenames-use-space-and-punctuation.xlsx
#> ├── 2023-04-10_jw-7-d-2-sl-deletethisandyourcareerisover-wx-2.txt
#> └── 2023-04-10_myabstract.docx