How to move files with name containing 1,7,13, 1+6n to a new folder?

Hi I have hundreds of files with the same names except the number in a folder,for example 2018test001.nd2, 2018test002.nd2, 2018test003.nd2,....2018test384.nd2. I want to move files with name containing 1,7,13,...1+6n to 1st new folder, and files with name containing 2,8,14,....2+6n to 2nd new folder,.....until files with name containing 6, 12,18,....6+6n to 6th new folder.

I have no clue how to perform it and hope to get some help. Thank you very much!

Answer 1

[Guillaume]

I have no clue how to perform it

Well, neither do we until we start to think about the problem, deconstruct it into steps and think on how to solve each step. You usually don't inherently know how to solve a problem. You need to engage your brain.

In your case, clearly, you want to get the list of files, get the number at the end of file, divide that number by 6 and take the remainder, and move the file into the corresponding folder according to that remainder. Once you've written down the tasks like this, it's just a matter of writing the equivalent in code. It's going to be something like:

filebase = 'something';
fileextenstion = 'ext';
sourcefolder = 'c:\somewhere\somefolder';
destinationprefix = 'c:\somewhere\someotherfolder';

for fidx = 0:5
   mkdir(sprintf('%s%d', destinationprefix, fidx));  %create destination folders
end
filelist = dir(fullfile(folder, sprintf('%s*.%s', filebase, fileextension))); %get list of files
filenumber = sscanf([filelist.name], sprintf('%s\%d.%s', filebase, fileextension)) %get the file numbers
foldernumber = mod(filenumber, 6);
for fidx = 1:numel(filelist)
   movefile(fullfile(folder, file(fidx).name), fullfile(sprintf('%s%d', destinationprefix, foldernumber(idx)), file(fidx).name);
 end

[Shirley]

Hi Thank you very much for your reply. Everything works fine until extracting the file number. I just realise that my files have numbers at the beginning as well. How should I specific to extract the number right before the extension? Thanks!

[Guillaume]

"How should I specific to extract the number right before the extension? Thanks!"

Please specify the exact format of your file names.

[Shirley]

So this is exactly the format

20181108_AB test on MCE p53Venus001.nd2

20181108_AB test on MCE p53Venus002.nd2

20181108_AB test on MCE p53Venus003.nd2

...etc

nd2 is the extension. I just figured out how to extract the numbers 001, 002, etc by using

regexp(s,'(?<=s)\d{3}','match','once')

But I am now stuck at moving the files to corresponding destionation folders.

Again, sorry for the confusion. Thanks!

[Shirley]

HIIIIIIII! It works now!!

movefile(fullfile(sourcefolder, files(fidx).name), fullfile(sprintf('%s%d', destinationprefix, foldernumber(fidx)), files(fidx).name));

There were just some f and source missing in your code. Thank you so much!!! I am so excited. :)

Answer 2

[madhan ravi]

see Processing sequence of files

[Shirley]

Thanks madhan ravi! I am gonna take a look at it.

Answer 3

[Image Analyst]

Give an example of the full filename. I don't know if the number is in the base filename, like abc6.dat, or if it's in the extension, like abc.6. Anyway, try using the function endsWith() to determine which files to copy, and movefile() to do the actual moving.

[Shirley]

That is a good catch. Sorry for the confusion. So the full filenames are like test001.nd2, test002.nd2, test003.nd2,....test384.nd2. Thanks

Answer 4

[Vasileios Tsiogkas]

i would like to ask you somthing more in this case.

i have 18000 files named :

Tumble_1000RPM_WOT000000.T000.D000.P000.H000.L.vec

Tumble_1000RPM_WOT000001.T000.D000.P000.H000.L.vec

...........

Tumble_1000RPM_WOT017999.T000.D000.P000.H000.L.vec

i would like to seperate this files to 360 folders

in first forlder i would like to save the 1, 361, 721, 1081,1441,1801....

in second folder 2.362,722,1082,1442,1802...

in 360 folder the 360,720,1080,1440,1800...

and i use this code above....

clear all

clc

filebase = 'C:\Users\user\Desktop\2D_TR_PIV_2020\Tumble_Plane_1000RPM_WOT';

fileextenstion = 'vec';

sourcefolder = 'C:\Users\user\Desktop\2D_TR_PIV_2020\Tumble_Plane_1000RPM_WOT';

destinationprefix = 'C:\Users\user\Desktop\2D_TR_PIV_2020\Tumble_Plane_1000RPM_WOT\Tumble_Plane_1000RPM_WOT_results_320-2x';

for fidx = 0:360

mkdir(sprintf('%s%d', destinationprefix, fidx)); %create destination folders

end

filelist = dir(fullfile(sourcefolder, sprintf('%s*.%s', filebase, fileextenstion))); %get list of files

filenumber = sscanf([filelist.name], sprintf('%s\%d.%s', filebase, fileextenstion)); %get the file numbers

foldernumber = mod(filenumber, 360);

for fidx = 1:numel(filelist)

movefile(fullfile(folder, file(fidx).name), fullfile(sprintf('%s%d', destinationprefix, foldernumber(idx)), file(fidx).name));

end

but this isnt work.

Can you help me with this?