Solved VB script: Rename all files in a folder to a specified prefix

[moonsie]

Hi, I'm trying to find help in entering paths and prefix's in my vb script.
I am of course a newbie to visual basic and don't know where to enter the path and wording for prefix.
Any help would be most appreciated.
Rich

 

[Tookeri]

You're not supposed to enter those in the script, but instead set as parameters to the file when you execute it. Example:

rename.vbs c:\somepath somePrefix

use " around the path if it contains spaces, example "c:\some folder"

 

[moonsie]

Hi Tookeri, Thank you for responding.
Where do you place the rename.vbs c:\somepath someprefix ? I assume the top of the page.

 

[Tookeri]

No. From a command window, or from the Start Orb rb: in the text box "Search programs and files"

The script is designed that way so you never have to modify the code to be able to execute it for different paths and suffixes.

 

[moonsie]

Tookeri, I receive this alert when I run the script.

The code: RenameFiles.vbs "c:\Users\Richards" sp_train 01.jpg
Where I placed the code:
WScript.Echo "RenameFiles.vbs requires 2 parameters:" &_
vbcrlf & "1) Folder Path (or . for current folder)" &_
vbcrlf & "2) File Prefix" &_
vbcrlf & "3) Confirm each file? True/*False* (optional)"
WScript.Quit
RenameFiles.vbs "c:\Users\Richards" sp_train 01.jpg

 

[Tookeri]

Not sure I understand what you did when you "placed the code". You shouldn't add anything to or in the code.
If this was copied from the code then delete the bold line:

WScript.Echo "RenameFiles.vbs requires 2 parameters:" &_
vbcrlf & "1) Folder Path (or . for current folder)" &_
vbcrlf & "2) File Prefix" &_
vbcrlf & "3) Confirm each file? True/*False* (optional)"
WScript.Quit
RenameFiles.vbs "c:\Users\Richards" sp_train 01.jpg

 

[moonsie]

Hi Tookeri,
I really feel dense.
I removed all the code I added to the original script and ran it in an Admin command prompt and received these errors.
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\System32>Option Explicit
'Option' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Windows\System32>Dim oCmd, oFolder, oFSO, oFileList, oFile
'Dim' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Windows\System32>Dim sRenamePath, sRenamePrefix, sFileExtension, sConfirmRena
me
'Dim' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Windows\System32>Dim iFileCount, iFileIndex
'Dim' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Windows\System32>Dim bConfirmEach
'Dim' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

Thanks for your patience.

 

[Tookeri]

Not sure why that's failing. As a test try in the command prompt to only type rename.vbs without parameters. That should print the information about how the parameters work.

Also test from Windows Start rb: Search to see if that makes a difference.

And check if the script came with any specific instructions on how to execute it.

 

[Pyprohly]

I removed all the code I added to the original script and ran it in an Admin command prompt and received these errors.
[...]
C:\Windows\System32>Option Explicit
'Option' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

[etc. ...]

Some confusion needs clearing up.

WScript.exe and CScript.exe are the interpreters for VBScript (and JScript alike). The only scripting language that Cmd.exe recognises is Batch and solely Batch. The command prompt wants nothing to do with other languages. It does not know what to do with other languages.

So don't go pasting lines of VBScript into the command prompt and expect no errors will be returned.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there

If you can download a Live LINUX CD then it's simple (beware of spaces / whitespace though in file names).
This command will add PRE_ to the filenames for example.

ls | xargs -I {} mv {} PRE_{}

Here's another command script (Linux) -- it will find say all html files and add prefix_ in front of their names
for f in $(find . -name '*.html'); do mv "$f" "$(dirname "$f")/prefix_$(basename "$f")"; done

With PERL it's also astonishingly simple

perl -e 'rename $_, "PRE_$_" for <*>

I think you can install perl on windows

Installing Perl on Windows (32 and 64 bit) - learn.perl.org

Forget vbscript it's JUNK, CLUNKY and quite difficult to get anything to work properly.

Another good teaching code language is PYTHON -- being taught in UK schools now too.

For Windows you can download

https://www.python.org/downloads/windows/

Very simple, powerful and worth having a look at.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Pyprohly]

Suggesting different scripting languages are we now, Jimbo?

In that case, the following Command Prompt command appends the string "PRE_" to each filename in the current directory.

for %I in (*) do ren "%I" "PRE_%~nxI"

And even easier to accomplish in Windows PowerShell,

gci | ren -new {"PRE_$_"}

Though, I think Moonsie is more looking forward to fixing his VBScript, rather than reading all about how VBScript is such a bad language compared to blah and blah.

Another good teaching code language is PYTHON

However, I highly recommend this language^

 

[chadteck]

The script accepts 2 (optionally 3) parameters.

The command you entered (RenameFiles.vbs "c:\Users\Richards" sp_train 01.jpg) would be interpreted as 3 parameters, but it doesn't know how to handle the 3rd (01.jpg). It should be 1 or true if you want to prompt for each file, but any non-zero number should work.

Warning: you might not actually want to run this command. I'm not sure it would succeed, but if it does, it will rename the user hive of your registry (ntuser.dat).

If you just want to rename the files without prompting, you would want to enter (at the command prompt, see attached image and make sure you are in the directory in which renamefiles.vbs is located):

RenameFiles.vbs "c:\Users\Richards" sp_train

Keep in mind that this script doesn't care about file extensions. This is going to rename every file with any extension "sp_train" followed by _ and a number followed by the original extension. For example: "sp_train_01.jpg".

If you're just trying to rename some files for yourself occaisionally, you might be better off using a tool like 1-4a Rename. It has a GUI and advanced renaming options.