Moving files to parent folder in R

Question

I have a file structure similar to this:

D:/bu1/rp1/_archive/

D:/bu1/rp2/_archive/

D:/bu1/rp3/_archive/

D:/bu2/rp1/_archive/

D:/bu2/rp2/_archive/

D:/bu3/rp1/_archive/

D:/bu4/rp1/_archive/

D:/bu4/rp2/_archive/

and would like to move files form the '_archive' folder into their respective parent folders (e.g. from D:/bu1/rp1/_archive/ to D:/bu1/rp1).

I have each of the archive folder paths stored as a list, and think a relatively simple for loop should get the job done - I'm just unsure of how to point the files to the parent directory.

Answer 1

Sorry, this isn't tested (since I don't know what or how many files you are copying), but something like this might work

#recreating your directory structure
old_dirs <- list('D:/bu1/rp1/_archive/',
  'D:/bu1/rp2/_archive/',
  'D:/bu1/rp3/_archive/',
  'D:/bu2/rp1/_archive/',
  'D:/bu2/rp2/_archive/',
  'D:/bu3/rp1/_archive/',
  'D:/bu4/rp1/_archive/',
  'D:/bu4/rp2/_archive/')

#splitting filepaths at underscore, which is not really generalized
#but works for your example
new_dirs <- strsplit(unlist(old_dirs), '_')
new_dirs <- lapply(new_dirs, '[[', 1)

#this loop probably needs some work
for(i in old_dirs) {
  all_files <- list.files(old_dirs[[i]])
  file.copy(old_dirs[[i]], new_dirs[[i]])
}