Script to move files from a folder to different folder in another directory that shares part of the same name as file

This is pretty straightforward. The following script should get you started:

set sourceFolder to (choose folder)

set destFolder to "path:to:destination"

tell application "Finder"

-- iterate through the files:

repeat with eachFile in (every file of folder sourceFolder)

try

-- extract the first 10 characters of the file name

set first10Chars to (characters 1 through 10 of name of eachFile) as text

-- do we have a matching folder name?

if existsfolderfirst10Chars of folderdestFolder then

-- if so, move the file there

moveeachFiletofolderfirst10Chars of folderdestFolder

end if

end try

end repeat

end tell

It will ask you for the source folder - the folder that contains all the files in question. You need to edit the second line to represent the path to the folder where the device folders are (or change this to another 'choose folder' statement to select it when you run the script.

Well, that does complicate things a bit 🙂

Is there any structure to where the device folder might be? any hints/shortcuts to use? or do you have to scan through all the first-level directories to find the second-level device folder?

It might not make a difference, depending on how many options there are. I'm just thinking of the time it will take to run if there are thousands of folders it has to scan through.

The simplest change would be to iterate through the folders in destFolder until you find a match. It's inefficient, but a quick hack. If it's too slow, post back and I'll look at optimization options:

set sourceFolder to (choose folder)

set destFolder to "path:to:destination"

tell application "Finder"

-- iterate through the files:

repeat with eachFile in (every file of folder sourceFolder)

try

-- extract the first 10 characters of the file name

set first10Chars to (characters 1 through 10 of name of eachFile) as text

-- do we have a matching folder name?

repeat with each_folder in (every folder of folder destFolder)

if existsfolderfirst10Chars of foldereach_folder then

-- if so, move the file there

moveeachFiletofolderfirst10Chars of folderdestFolder

exit repeat

end if

end repeat

end try

end repeat

end tell

Two minutes after posting I thought of one optimization - this turns the logic on its head...

In the first case I iterated through the files, looking for folders to put them in.

In this version I start with the folders, iterating through all the folders and gathering files that match the first 10 characters.

Which one is faster depends on the ratio of files to folders. If there are a small(it) number of folders then this gathering approach should be faster:

set sourceFolder to (choose folder)

set destFolder to "path:to:destination"

tell application "Finder"

-- get the top-level folders:

repeat with each_folder in (every folder of folder destFolder)

-- iterate through the folders:

repeat with each_device_folder in (every folder of each_folder)

try

-- extract the first 10 characters of the folder name

set first10Chars to (characters 1 through 10 of name of each_device_folder) as text

-- we have a folder name, do we have any matching files?

move (every file of foldersourceFolder whose name begins with first10Chars) tofoldereach_device_folder

end try

end repeat

end repeat

end tell

Grrr, the Finder can be so picky sometimes 🙂

Try this version:

set sourceFolder to (choose folder)

set destFolder to path to"path:to:destination"

tell application "Finder"

-- get the top-level folders:

repeat with each_folder in (every folder of folder destFolder as alias list)

-- iterate through the folders:

repeat with each_device_folder in (get every folder of each_folder as alias list)

try

-- extract the first 10 characters of the folder name

set first10Chars to (characters 1 through 10 of (get name of each_device_folder)) as text

-- we have a folder name, do we have any matching files?

move (get every file of folder sourceFolder whose name begins with first10Chars) to folder each_device_folder

end try

end repeat

end repeat

end tell

Hello

You might try the following AppleScript, which is a simple wrapper of shell script.

set src to (choose folder with prompt "Choose source (csv, jpg) folder")'s POSIX path set dst to (choose folder with prompt "Choose destination (Feeders) folder")'s POSIX path set args to src's quoted form & space & dst's quoted form do shell script "/bin/bash -s <<'EOF' - " & args & " SRC=$1 DST=$2 find -E \"$SRC\" -type f -iregex '.*/(..........)_[^/]*$' -print0 | while read -d $'\\0' f do # get destination name ($m) from file name ($n) of $f n=${f##*/} [[ $n =~ (..........)_.*$ ]] || continue m=${BASH_REMATCH[1]} # get destination directory ($d) d=$(find \"$DST\" -type d -iname \"$m\" | head -n1) [[ -n $d ]] || continue # check current parent directory of $f [[ ${f%/*} == $d ]] && continue # skip if already moved # move $f to $d mv \"$f\" \"$d\" done EOF"

Briefly tested under OS X 10.6.8 but no warranties of any kind. Please make sure you have backup of directories before running this sort of script.

Regards,

H