Batch file to rename .txt to include number of rows

Question

i have a routine that sends generic .txt files named "orders.txt" every hour. as i receive them, i want to run a batch file to rename the file to: orders_DDMMYYYYMMSS_XXX.txt where XXX would be the total number of rows contained within the originating file

so far i have figured how to add the date/time stamp, but not the row count.

thanks in advance!

ren *.txt Completed_Orders_%date:~10,4%%date:~7,2%%date:~4,2%%time:~0,2%%time:~3,2%.txt

`find /c /v ""` gets you the line count. Put a `for /f` loop around to get it into a variable (see `for /?`). — Stephan, Jun 17 '19 at 19:57
I'd advise, if you're relatively satisfied with limited user settings, changing `%date:~10,4%%date:~7,2%%date:~4,2%%time:~0,2%%time:~3,2%` to `%DATE:~-4%%DATE:~-7,2%%DATE:~-10,2%%TIME:~0,2%%TIME:~3,2%` instead. This would increase decrease the number of users not having settings to achieve `DDMMYYYYMMSS`, because some settings do not prefix `Day` to their `%DATE%`. — Compo, Jun 17 '19 at 21:02

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 18 '19 at 13:27

0

i did this:

set file=*.txt
set /a cnt=0
for /f %%a in ('type "%file%"^|find "" /v /c') do set /a cnt=%%a
ren *.txt "Completed_Orders_%date:~10,4%%date:~7,2%%date:~4,2%%time:~0,2%%time:~3,2%_%cnt%.txt"

edited Jun 18 '19 at 13:27

Stephan

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answered Jun 18 '19 at 13:00

Carlo B.

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that's fine when you are sure, there is just one `.txt` file (as you seem to be). Be aware this depends on your local settings, so it might not work on another computer (especially you probably will get a space in the date/time string before `10:00`, so I quoted your destination file name to take care of that space - although I`d prefer a [language independent solution](https://stackoverflow.com/a/18024049/2152082)). Be sure to set the working folder when you schedule it to run each hour or it won't find your file(s). – Stephan Jun 18 '19 at 13:34
thanks for the feedback. if there are more than one .txt files in the folder, it doesn't seem to work as you have indicated. how would i alter this to deal with multiple .txt files in the folder? – Carlo B. Jun 18 '19 at 14:06

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 18 '19 at 14:55

This is how I would do it:

@echo off
for /f "tokens=2 delims==" %%I in ('wmic os get localdatetime /format:list') do set "datetime=%%I"
set "datetime=%datetime:~0,12%"

for %%F in (*.txt) do (
  for /f %%a in ('type "%%F"^|find "" /v /c') do (
    ECHO ren "%%F" "Completed_Orders_%%~nF_%datetime%_%%a.new
  )
)

Changes:

another way to get the date/time string without being dependent on locale settings
a surrounding for %%F loop to process each *.txt file
keeping the original filename (%%~nF) as part of the new name
another extension for the renamed files (to avoid reprocessing them again and again) It would be better to filter the to-be-renamed files at the beginning, but I don't know how they look like (instead *.txt something that matches only preprocessed files)
disarmed the ren command with ECHO. Remove the ECHO after troubleshooting (when you are sure, it works as intended)

Batch file to rename .txt to include number of rows

2 Answers2