How do I create a directory subfolder that will remove all but the first 6 numbers from the folder name, AND add _mmyy to the end of it

Absent some details on the required task, and defaulting to the home directory, and completely lacking of error checking and related verification, here's a zsh example that prompts for a string, then shows the commands used to create two directories (the actual mkdir commands are commented out) by parsing the name:

#!/bin/zsh
jobName=$(osascript -so <<EndOfScript
    set userJobInput to (display dialog "Enter Job Name" default answer "" \
    with icon note \
    buttons {"Done"} default button "Done")
    return text returned of userJobInput
EndOfScript
)
#    text returned of (display dialog "Enter Job Name" default answer "" \
#    with icon note \
#    buttons {"Cancel", "Continue"} default button "Continue")
#EndOfScript
#)
digits=${jobName:0:6}
date=$(date -j +"%m%y")
echo "Job Name: $jobName"
echo "Digits: $digits"
echo "mkdir -p \"$HOME/${jobName}_${date}/info\""
# mkdir -p "$HOME/${jobName}_${date}/info"
echo "mkdir -p \"$HOME/${digits}_${date}\""
# mkdir -p "$HOME/${digits}_${date}"

There are lots of ways this script can fail, not the least of which is a too-short string.

This thread is a continuation of this earlier thread:

… Create a Folder with the mm/yy at the end… - Apple Community

The mkdir -p I’d mentioned over there replaces both mkdir commands (that were originally used over there) with one mkdir command that creates both directories.

More generally… I’d stay out of Automator here, and would debug the zsh or bash shell script directly.

I would strongly recommend avoiding this command for now:

rm -r

That can potentially clobber unexpected things, if $1 is not entirely as expected. rm errors are unrecoverable, absent backups or other copies of the data. The following rm is somewhat safer, while testing the script:

rm -ri

Rather than the Automator stuff, and the shell script stuff, please post the input path spec and the required output path spec, and somebody here can then provide the shell script commands.

Neecerp3 wrote:

I dont want to have to learn bash. I just need to finish this up in automator so I can use it as a desktop droplet.

That much is clear.

Please post the droplet renaming specification—your preferred behavior—for your path naming transformation.

To start the spec, from my understanding so far: leading six characters of the input path get appended with month and year.

What should happen if the leading characters aren’t digits? Anything different?

What should happen if the specified input path is less than six characters?

And to confirm, you really do want path names that will sort all the same-month entries together across all years?

0123

0124

0125

0223

0224

0225

etc

That makes you entirely dependent on how those first six characters sort. If they’re possibly duplicated, the months will sort in preference to the years.

And it seems you’re now deleting (rm) directory contents. Are you presumably also transferring some or all of contents from one directory to another? (I ask this because a rename (mv) operation might work better here, if some or all of the contents are being moved into the new directory.)

What is the connection between the operator inputting that descriptive string, and the folder creation?

Your use of a droplet implies manual processing.

Your description implies the operator is entering some text, and the folders fall out.

Is there some other task active here that's creating these directories, or is this all in this same Automator script?

Details like this can send things in different directions, such as some operation creating a folder in a known place, and the requirements here then operate—if some other tool or operation is involved writing a folder into a known place, then it's possible to have the folder take an action when the new folder arrives. Automatically.

Or are these production jobs just the operator inputting the string into some tool, and you then want two nested folders created? (You're referring to a droplet and which implies some other steps elsewhere and with some manual processing to drag something onto the script, but your replies here are also referring to an operator that is entering something. Is all this input specification and folder-related processing one sequence, from operator text input through to folder creation? Or is there an intermediate file or directory here that's getting dragged around and dropped?)

What Mac OS version?