Search code examples
windowsbatch-filemove

Batch script to move files that match another set of files?

This would help me a lot of possible.

Example: Folder1 has 900 files ending in .zip. Folder2 has 300 files that match the ones in Folder1 but in .doc

How can I create a batch script to move files from Folder1 to Folder1-sorted that only have a .doc alternative ending up with a folder1-sorted with only 300 .zip files?

My initial guess was doing dir > list.txt and changing the extension of every line and using this list to copy.. but I guess there might be a more clever solution to doing this.

Solution

  • With the aid of Setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion and For loops you could build an indexed array whose values contain just the filenames for your .doc files, using the ~n variable modifier, then use another for loop on your .zip files to compare against the array with a nested For /L loop.

    EG:

    @ECHO OFF & Setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
CD "your path for parent directory containing folders 1 and 2"

REM build the array using the smaller data set...

PUSHD Folder2
Set "_I=0"
For %%A in (*.doc) Do (
    Set /A _I+=1
    Set "file[!_I!]=%%~nA"
)
POPD
PUSHD Folder1
For %%A in (*.zip) Do (
    For /L %%B in (1,1,!_I!) Do (
        If "!file[%%B]!"=="%%~nA" (
            ECHO(%%A matches !file[%%B]!.doc
REM command for on Match here
        )
    )
)
POPD