I'm trying to copy specific files from C: to "X: for example". The files are named with the same format.

A1234_ZZabc123_DT1_F1.tst 
A4567_ZZdef4567_DT2_F2.tst 
A8901_ZZghi1289_DT1.tst 
A2345_ZZjfkbu12_to_modify.tst 
A6789_ZZlmny568_F1_to_modify.tst 
A1234_ZZabc478_DT1.txt 

I want to copy only the .tst files, and with the same format as the first 3 Axxxx_ZZyyyxxx_DTx_Fx.tst where x=number and y=letter.

After ZZ, it might be 4 letters and 3 numbers, or 5 letters and 4 numbers, like a "namecode". Example: ZZkusha122 or ZZkus1551. I need to copy the folders along with the files too.

I'm new to coding and really need some help.

I need to find and copy all those files along 10k files together

CodePudding user response：

You claim that the first 3 of your example filenames fit the pattern you describe. I believe that only two do.

@ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL
rem The following setting for the directory is a name
rem that I use for testing and deliberately includes spaces to make sure
rem that the process works using such names. These will need to be changed to suit your situation.

SET "sourcedir=u:\your files"

FOR /f "delims=" %%e IN (
 'dir /b /a-d "%sourcedir%\A*.tst"^|findstr /X /I /R "A[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]_ZZ[a-z][a-z][a-z]_DT[0-9]_F[0-9].tst" '
 ) DO ECHO COPY "%sourcedir%\%%e" X:
)

GOTO :EOF

Always verify against a test directory before applying to real data.

The required COPY commands are merely ECHOed for testing purposes. After you've verified that the commands are correct, change ECHO COPY to COPY to actually copy the files. Append >nul to suppress report messages (eg. 1 file copied)

Simply execute a dir command that reports only filenames matching the *.tst mask. Filter this list with findstr which /X exactly matches the regular expression provided. findstr only has a limited implementation of regular expressions. The /I forces a case-insensitive match. If you want case-sensitive, remove the /I and change each [a-z] to [a-zA-Z] (leave as-is if you want lower-case only in these positions.)

See findstr /? from the prompt for more documentation, or search for examples on SO.

---- revision to cater for multiple filemasks and subdirectories ---

@ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL
rem The following setting for the directory is a name
rem that I use for testing and deliberately includes spaces to make sure
rem that the process works using such names. These will need to be changed to suit your situation.

SET "sourcedir=u:\your files"
SET "maskfile=%sourcedir%\q74442552.txt"

FOR /f "tokens=1*delims=" %%e IN (
 'dir /b/s /a-d "%sourcedir%\*.tst"^|findstr /E /I /R /g:"%maskfile%" '
 ) DO ECHO COPY "%%e" X:
)

GOTO :EOF

Changes:

1. Establish a file, name irrelevant, as maskfile
   
2. The dir command requires the /s switch to scan subdirectories
   
3. The filemask for the dir command loses the initial A
   
4. The findstr command replaces the /X switch with /E
   
5. The findstr command loses the regex expression. These are transferred to a file and the file is nominated by the /g: switch.
   
6. The copy command loses the source-directory as the directory will be included in %%e
   

The file "q74442552.txt" contains lines that are of the form

A[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]_ZZ[a-z][a-z][a-z]_DT[0-9]_F[0-9].tst
A[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]_ZZ[a-z][a-z][a-z]_to.*.tst

This time, %%e acquires the full pathname of the files found. Since the filemask ends .tst, the only filenames to pass the dir filter will be those that end .tst.

The /e switch tells findstr to match string that End with the regex strings in the file specified as /g:.

The strings in the file must comply with Microsoft's partial regex implementation, one to a line.

In summary, findstr uses as regex

• Any character,literally
• [set] any character of a set of characters
• [^set] any character not in a set of characters
• . any character
• .* any number of any character
• prefix any of the special characters with\ to use it literally
• a set may include a range by using low-high

So - you then need to brew-your own using the examples I've supplied. The second line matches Axxxx_ZZyyy_to{anything}.tst for instance.

--- Minor revision to deal with maintaining destination-tree -----

@ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL
rem The following setting for the directory is a name
rem that I use for testing and deliberately includes spaces to make sure
rem that the process works using such names. These will need to be changed to suit your situation.

SET "sourcedir=u:\your files"
SET "maskfile=%sourcedir%\q74442552.txt"
SET "destdir=u:\your results"

FOR /f "tokens=1*delims=" %%e IN (
 'dir /b/s /a-d "%sourcedir%\*.tst"^|findstr /E /I /R /g:"%maskfile%" '
 ) DO XCOPY /Y /D /S "%sourcedir%\%%~nxe" "