Hello I am trying to rename all files ending with "VA.pdf" to "PA.pdf" using batch code

I tired this code but it is not working

REN *VA.pdf *PA.pdf

Appreciate any help

CodePudding user response：

There can be used for this file renaming task:

@echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion
if exist "*!*VA.pdf" goto ExtendedVersion

setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
for /F "eol=| delims=" %%I in ('dir *VA.pdf /A-D-L /B 2^>nul') do (
    set "FileNamePDF=%%~nI"
    set "FileNameNew=!FileNamePDF:~0,-2!PA%%~xI"
    if not exist "!FileNameNew!" ren "!FileNamePDF!%%~xI" "!FileNameNew!"
)
endlocal
goto EndBatch

:ExtendedVersion
echo INFO: Extended version required because of a PDF file with exclamation marks.
for /F "eol=| delims=" %%I in ('dir *VA.pdf /A-D-L /B 2^>nul') do (
    set "FileNamePDF=%%~nI"
    setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
    set "FileNameNew=!FileNamePDF:~0,-2!PA%%~xI"
    if not exist "!FileNameNew!" ren "!FileNamePDF!%%~xI" "!FileNameNew!"
    endlocal
)

:EndBatch
endlocal

There is defined first the required execution environment with the first two command lines.

The IF condition in the third command line quickly checks if there is any PDF file with case-insensitive VA in the file name before the file extension .pdf containing one or more exclamation marks in the file name. The extended version of the processing loop is required if this condition is true.

The standard version enables first required delayed expansion. Then a FOR loop is used which runs in background with Windows installed into C:\Windows:

C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c dir *VA.pdf /A-D-L /B 2>nul

The internal command DIR of cmd.exe searches

• in the current directory as defined by the process starting cmd.exe for processing the batch file
• for just file names because of option /A-D-L (attribute not directory and not link)
• matching case-insensitive the wildcard pattern *VA.pdf in long or short 8.3 name
• and outputs in bare format because of option /B just the file names with file extension, but without file path.

An error message output to handle STDERR (standard error) on DIR does not find any file system entry matching the criteria is suppressed by redirecting this error message to the device NUL.

Read the Microsoft documentation about Using command redirection operators for an explanation of 2>nul. The redirection operator > must be escaped with caret character ^ on FOR command line to be interpreted as literal character when Windows command interpreter processes this command line before executing command FOR which executes the embedded dir command line with using a separate command process started in background.

FOR respectively cmd.exe processing the batch file captures all output written to standard output stream of in background started cmd.exe and processes it line by line after started cmd.exe closed itself after finishing executing the command DIR.

FOR with option /F is used here to get a list of file names of *VA.pdf files loaded into memory of cmd.exe before really doing the file renames as otherwise it could happen especially on FAT drives (FAT32, exFAT) that some PDF files are skipped or processed more than once (on rename not possible).

FOR on using option /F ignores always empty lines which is no problem here as DIR with the used options does not output empty lines.

FOR would next split up the lines into substrings using horizontal tab and normal space as string delimiters, would look next if first tab/space separated string begins with a semicolon in which case it would also ignore the entire line for further processing, and would otherwise assign just the first tab/space separated string to the specified loop variable I before running the commands in body of FOR.

The default line splitting behavior is not wanted as PDF file names can contain one or more spaces. The usage of the option delims= defines an empty list of delimiters which turns off the line splitting behavior.

It is very unusual but nevertheless possible that a PDF file name begins with ; (semicolon). Such a file name should not be ignored by FOR. The option eol=| defines a vertical bar as end of line character which no file name can contain ever. Microsoft lists the characters not allowed in a file name on Windows file systems in the documentation about Naming Files, Paths, and Namespaces.

The current file name without file extension .pdf is assigned first to the environment variable FileNamePDF.

Next a string substitution is used to get from the string value of the environment variable FileNamePDF the file name without the last two characters VA concatenated with the string PA and the file extension .pdf assigned to the environment variable FileNameNew.

If there is not already a PDF file ending with PA in the file name before the file extension, there is next executed the command REN to rename the *VA.pdf file to *PA.pdf.

The command ENDLOCAL after the loop restores the previous environment before enabling delayed expansion and the command GOTO instructs the Windows Command Processor to continue processing the batch file with the command line below the label EndBatch which contains one more ENDLOCAL to restore the environment on starting the batch file processing.

The extended version is nearly the same as the standard version. The difference is that delayed variable expansion is not enabled on assigning the file name of the current VA.pdf file without the file extension to the environment variable FileNamePDF. That avoids interpreting the exclamation mark(s) in the file name as beginning/end of a delayed expanded variable reference resulting in a manipulation of the file name string before assigning it to the environment variable as it would happen with delayed expansion already enabled.

The extended version enables next delayed variable expansion inside the loop, does the same as the standard version and restores finally the previous environment before processing the next *VA.pdf file.

The extended version is slower because of the environment variables list copy and the other operations made in background by every execution of SETLOCAL as explained in full details in this answer. The command ENDLOCAL in the loop is required to avoid a stack overflow on processing lots of PDF files.

To understand the commands used and how they work, open a command prompt window, execute there the following commands, and read the displayed help pages for each command, entirely and carefully.

• echo /?
• endlocal /?
• for /?
• goto /?
• if /?
• ren /?
• set /?
• setlocal /?

CodePudding user response：

You can try this (quick and dirty):

mkdir output
(robocopy "*VA.pdf" "output\*PA.pdf" /IS)

Note: After that you can delete your *VA.pdf files. But please make 100% sure it works before you delete any of your files.