Sorting files into directories with powershell

Question

I have the following problem and I would really appreciate it if I could get some help on that front. I am getting a constant flow of xml files into a folder. A XML file name can look like this. It only goes up to 1005.

1001.order-asdf1234.xml
1002.order-asdf4321.xml

I want to sort the files into uniquely named folders that are not based on the file names. A example for that would be

C:\Directory Path...\Peter (All files starting with 1001 go in there)
C:\Directory Path...\John (All files starting with 1002 go there)

How can I create a batch or a powershell script to continuously sorts files into the specified folders? Since I only have 5 folders I would like to simply specify the target folders for each and not have elaborate loops but I don't know how to do that.

Please do not crosspost. See meta.stackexchange.com/a/64069/267099 — DavidPostill
– DavidPostill, Commented Aug 20, 2021 at 20:23

Theo · Accepted Answer · 2021-08-20 09:54:46Z

The easiest way is to create a lookup Hashtable where you define which prefix ('1001' .. '1005') maps to which destination folder:

# create a Hasthable to map the digits to a foldername
$folderMap = @{
    '1001' = 'Peter'
    '1002' = 'John'
    '1003' = 'Lucretia'
    '1004' = 'Matilda'
    '1005' = 'Henry'
}

# set source and destination paths
$rootFolder = 'X:\Where\the\files\are'
$destination = 'Y:\Where\the\files\should\go'

# loop over the files in the root path
Get-ChildItem -Path $rootFolder -Filter '*.xml' -File | 
Where-Object { $_.BaseName -match '^\d{4}\.' } | 
ForEach-Object {
    $prefix = ($_.Name -split '\.')[0]
    $targetPath = Join-Path -Path $destination -ChildPath $folderMap[$prefix]
    $_ | Move-Item -Destination $targetPath -WhatIf
}

Remove the -WhatIf safety-switch if you are satisfied with the results shown on screen

Mathias R. Jessen · Accepted Answer · 2021-08-20 09:54:58Z

You could use a switch statement to decide on the target folder based on the first part of the file name:

$files = Get-ChildItem path\to\folder\with\xml\files -Filter *.xml
switch($files)
{
  {$_.Name -like '1001*'} {
    $_ |Move-Item -Destination 'C:\path\to\Peter'
  }

  {$_.Name -like '1002*'} {
    $_ |Move-Item -Destination 'C:\path\to\John'
  }

  {$_.Name -like '1003*'} {
    # etc...
  }

  default {
    Write-Warning "No matching destination folder for file '$($_.Name)'"
  }
}

If you change your mind about loops, my preference would be to store the mapping in a hashtable and loop over the entries for each file:

$files = Get-ChildItem path\to\folder\with\xml\files -Filter *.xml

$targetFolders = @{
  '1001' = 'C:\path\to\Peter'
  '1002' = 'C:\path\to\John'
  '1003' = 'C:\path\to\Paul'
  '1004' = 'C:\path\to\George'
  '1005' = 'C:\path\to\Ringo'
}

foreach($file in $files){
  $targetFolder = $targetFolders.Keys.Where({$file.Name -like "${_}*"}, 'First')

  $file |Move-Item -Destination $targetFolder
}

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