This seems like a common problem, where a simple script may help us. We have a list of files that needs to be renamed. This problem can occur due to several reasons. One of those reasons is certainly a changed naming convention. Let's consider the following piece of information (from Wikipedia):
116 1 "Hot Water" Chris Bennett Judah Miller & Murray Miller September 25, 2011 6AJN18 5.83[135]
117 2 "Hurricane!" Tim Parsons Erik Sommers October 2, 2011 6AJN07 5.80[136]
118 3 "A Ward Show" Josue Cervantes Erik Durbin November 6, 2011 6AJN01 4.85[137]
119 4 "The Worst Stan" Rodney Clouden Nahnatchka Khan November 13, 2011 6AJN11 4.87[138]
120 5 "Virtual In-Stanity" Shawn Murray Jordan Blum & Parker Deay November 20, 2011 6AJN16 4.82[139]
121 6 "The Scarlett Getter" Josue Cervantes Matt Fusfeld & Alex Cuthbertson November 27, 2011 6AJN09 4.48[140]
122 7 "Season's Beatings" Joe Daniello Erik Sommers December 11, 2011 6AJN21 5.00[141]
123 8 "The Unbrave One" Joe Daniello Rick Wiener & Kenny Schwartz January 8, 2012 6AJN13 4.79[142]
124 9 "Stanny Tendergrass" Tim Parsons Keith Heisler January 29, 2012 6AJN15 4.77[143]
125 10 "Wheels & the Legman and the Case of Grandpa's Key" Josue Cervantes Laura McCreary February 12, 2012 6AJN17 3.59[144]
126 11 "Old Stan in the Mountain" Pam Cooke & Valerie Fletcher Jonathan Fener February 19, 2012 6AJN14 4.40[145]
127 12 "The Wrestler" Rodney Clouden Alan R. Cohen & Alan Freedland March 4, 2012 6AJN19 4.29[146]
128 13 "Dr. Klaustus" John Aoshima & Jansen Yee Brian Boyle March 11, 2012 6AJN12 4.62[147]
129 14 "Stan's Best Friend" John Aoshima & Jansen Yee Jonathan Fener March 18, 2012 6AJN20 4.61[148]
130 15 "Less Money, Mo' Problems" Chris Bennett Murray Miller & Judah Miller March 25, 2012 6AJN02 4.28[149]
131 16 "The Kidney Stays in the Picture" Pam Cooke & Valerie Fletcher Rick Wiener & Kenny Schwartz April 1, 2012 6AJN22 4.18[150]
132 17 "Ricky Spanish" Shawn Murray Erik Sommers May 6, 2012 7AJN02 4.82[151]
133 18 "Toy Whorey"[152] Tim Parsons & Jennifer Graves Matt Fusfeld & Alex Cuthbertson May 13, 2012 7AJN01
This list represents the episodes of a famous TV show. Since I digitalized my content I only have files, or digital data in general, of any media stored on one of my media center drives. The current format of those files looked something like this:
American.Dad.S07E01.mkv
American.Dad.S07E02.mkv
American.Dad.S07E03.mkv
American.Dad.S07E04.mkv
American.Dad.S07E05.mkv
American.Dad.S07E06.mkv
American.Dad.S07E07.mkv
American.Dad.S07E08.mkv
American.Dad.S07E09.mkv
American.Dad.S07E10.mkv
American.Dad.S07E11.mkv
American.Dad.S07E12.mkv
American.Dad.S07E13.mkv
American.Dad.S07E14.mkv
American.Dad.S07E15.mkv
American.Dad.S07E16.mkv
American.Dad.S07E17.mkv
American.Dad.S07E18.mkv
This might be good enough if we are just in search for a specific episode of a specific season. But we could grasp a lot more information, like the title of the episode. Also storing all files in one directory will result in a really bad overview. Therefore I did come up with the convention to seperate between Movies and Series, between different types of Series and between different Seasons. Every differentiation is stored in a single directory within the parent category. So storing the Season number in the file name is actually redundant information.
The following code snippet is able to perform the required transformation:
var ext = "mkv";
var dir = @"X:\Media\Series\American Dad\Season 7";
var list = "list.txt";
var regex = @"[\d]{3}\t([\d]{1,2})\t""(.*)"".*";
var files = System.IO.Directory.GetFiles(dir, "*." + ext);
var lines = System.IO.File.ReadAllLines(dir + "\\" + list);
var n = Math.Min(files.Length, lines.Length);
var r = new System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex(regex);
var invalids = System.IO.Path.GetInvalidFileNameChars();
for (var i = 0; i < n; i++)
{
var m = r.Match(lines[i]);
if (m.Success)
{
var nr = m.Groups[1].Value;
var title = m.Groups[2].Value;
var file = string.Format("{0} - {1}.{2}", nr, title, ext);
foreach (var invalid in invalids)
if (file.Contains(invalid))
file = file.Replace(invalid, ' ');
System.IO.File.Move(files[i], dir + "\\" + file);
}
}
We can outsource the variables ext (extension of the files to transform), dir (directory of the files to transform), list (file with the transformation data) and regex (regular expression, which expresses the transformation rule) to refactor the snippet as a method.
The magic lies in the regular expression. Here we have an expression that searches for a string which starts with 3 digits followed by a tab followed by a group of 1 or 2 digits followed by a tab. Then finally we have another group of characters within quotation marks and arbitrary characters afterwards. We are interested in the first and second group. The group with index zero represents the whole expression. Its value is therefore equal to the whole line of the transformation data.
The outcome of the transformation will look like this:
1 - Hot Water.mkv
2 - Hurricane!.mkv
3 - A Ward Show.mkv
4 - The Worst Stan.mkv
5 - Virtual In-Stanity.mkv
6 - The Scarlett Getter.mkv
7 - Season's Beatings.mkv
8 - The Unbrave One.mkv
9 - Stanny Tendergrass.mkv
10 - Wheels & the Legman and the Case of Grandpa's Key.mkv
11 - Old Stan in the Mountain.mkv
12 - The Wrestler.mkv
13 - Dr. Klaustus.mkv
14 - Stan's Best Friend.mkv
15 - Less Money, Mo' Problems.mkv
16 - The Kidney Stays in the Picture.mkv
17 - Ricky Spanish.mkv
18 - Toy Whorey.mkv
Most files can be easily renamed using the code snippet above and a data source from Wikipedia. The most complicated part will be the modifications in the regular expression. A quick test in a good editor or using a program like Expresso can help a lot here.