Help batch reformat file name date format from DD/MM/YY to YYYY-MM-DD

I need to batch rename a bunch of files for cross platform compatibility with Windows. Currently I have a lot of files with dates of the format DD/MM/YY that need to be renamed to ISO standard YYYY-MM-DD. I've looked around but most posts always talk about renaming with the file creation or modification date, which is not what I need. These are arbitrary dates in the names, nothing do do with the file creation or modification.

Posted on Mar 23, 2022 8:19 PM

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7 replies

Mar 24, 2022 2:15 PM in response to Angus Hume

Is the DD/MM/YY at the beginning (or end) of the file names (not including the extension)? If so, I believe you could do the conversion with A Better Finder Rename. I think it could be done in ABFR with 5 or 6 text/character manipulation steps:


DD/MM/YY beginning structure

20DD/MM/YY add '20' prefix (assuming all are year 2000 or later)

20YYDD/MM/ move YY to position

20YYMMDD// move MM to position

20YY-MMDD// add hyphen at position 5

20YY-MM-DD// add hyphen at position 8

20YY-MM-DD remove //

Mar 24, 2022 3:40 AM in response to Yer_Man

That looks more comprehensive than my current app. I’m not seeing an option to do what is required by default but probably can be done using the advanced option. But that needs coding. My current app can do regex replace also but I do not know the language. I’m sure this could also be done with AppleScript as I have seen similar examples. But I do not know that either.

Mar 24, 2022 2:58 PM in response to MartinR

On further thought, this could be done in ABFR if the DD/MM/YY is at the beginning or end of the filename; or at any fixed position in the filename. Unsure if it could be done in ABFR if the DD/MM/YY position is variable in the filenames. And my references (above) to moving YY or MM are to move the characters at those positions, not an actual YY or MM.

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Help batch reformat file name date format from DD/MM/YY to YYYY-MM-DD

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