PowerShell - Remove certain string from multiple filenames

Question

I have multiple .mp3 files in the catalogue and want to remove artist's name from their filenames. All the files' names contain string

"Adhesive Wombat - "

followed by the song's title. I want to remove (not replace) every occurence of that specific string in every filename in current folder.

Not to mention, I've searched for answer on this site and failed to find an elegant and satisfying solution.

This is my first encounter with PowerShell.

SO is not a code writing service. It is expected that you would show a little effort especially for something that would be considered a well documented request. Show some research effort and if you are still stuck update your question and we would be more then willing to help you. You are looking for Get-ChildItem and Rename-Item... maybe you would have to use For-EachObject — Matt
– Matt, Commented Mar 16, 2015 at 13:01
Followind code worked: Dir | ren -NewName { $_.Name -replace "Adhesive Wombat - ", "" } but there also were filenames that contained no space between words, that is "AdhesiveWombat". I'd like to remove both strings with one clear line of code, instead of executing 2 orders, one for each case. — Indrasil
– Indrasil, Commented Mar 16, 2015 at 13:25
Dir | ren -NewName { $_.Name -replace "Adhesive ?Wombat - ", "" } — CB.
– CB., Commented Mar 16, 2015 at 13:32
@CB. That is what I would have answered. You might as well do it and add a small explanation to close this one off. — Matt
– Matt, Commented Mar 16, 2015 at 13:43

Matt · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-16 14:09:52Z

22

As you know what you have is really close.

Dir | ren -NewName { $_.Name -replace "Adhesive Wombat - ", "" }

You added a stipulation that "Adhesive Wombat" may or may not contain a space. -replace uses regular expressions so lets harness that and make that space optional using a ?. I am also going to show you the full cmdlet name as supposed to aliases so you are aware of what is happening behind the scenes. It's hard to see but I tried to highlight the ? in bold for it to "pop".

Get-ChildItem | Rename-Item -NewName {$_.Name -replace "Adhesive ?Wombat - ", "" }

So that will match both

"other text Adhesive Wombat - other text "
"other text AdhesiveWombat - other text "

Also, depending on how much white space there is you could use \s+ where you have space which will match all consecutive white space.

answered Mar 16, 2015 at 14:09

Matt

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3 Comments

CB. Over a year ago

nice "small explanation" ;) up one

Matt Over a year ago

@CB. I hate short little answers-> "Works because of [link]" .Feels like im doing a diservice.

hexacube Over a year ago

@Matt Perfect solution. Renamed 1210 files in less than 10 seconds.

budist · Accepted Answer · 2019-10-16 18:34:01Z

6

From the above answers, the quick working example for simply copy&paste, that worked on win 10 Powershell:

change directory to your target directory
define files with e.g. *.txt or set all files with *.*
insert your Strings for replacement

cd C:\.... 
Get-ChildItem *.* | Rename-Item -NewName {$_.Name -replace "StringtoReplace", "newString"}

edited Oct 16, 2019 at 18:34

answered Oct 15, 2019 at 14:11

budist

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