Note: I’m a beginner to Powershell and a bit more familiar with Bash (though still a beginner for that too).

*I have multiple PDF files and I want to rename each file based on a list of names found in an Excel/CSV (could be a text file if easier) file.

*The list begins at the A2 cell and the A1 cell has the header ‘name’.

*The files are in sequential order and match the order of the list of names.

Thanks for your help!

  • @d3Xt3r
    3•3 months ago

    There’s no point in having a CSV for just a single column, just make it a simple text file and it’ll simplify the code a bit. So assuming you have a file called names.txt, here’s a one-liner that can do the trick:

    $names = cat "\path\to\names.txt"; $i=0; dir | % { ren $_ "$($names[$i])"; $i++ }

    As long as the order in your text file matches the order shown by dir, you shouldn’t have any issues. Maybe do a dry run with a -WhatIf to the ren first to see how the files are being renamed, before you do the actual rename. :)

    • @[email protected]OP
      1•3 months ago

      Thanks but I’m getting a ‘Cannot create a file when that file already exists.’ error. I checked the path so I am certain it is correct.

      • @d3Xt3r
        2•3 months ago

        That means there’s a duplicate entry, check the full error message for the file name. You can also use the -Verbose switch to see what’s going on.

          • @d3Xt3r
            2•3 months ago

            Ah, I misplaced a quote in my code, I’ve update the post - try version.

            • @[email protected]OP
              1•3 months ago

              So it sort of worked in that it outputed a bunch of files with the names but with blank icons and not the Adobe icons. Powershell also had an error for each list item that looked like the following:

              Rename-Item : Cannot bind argument to parameter 'NewName' because it is an empty string.
At line:1 char:86
+ ... ads\individuals.txt"; $i=0; dir | % { ren $_ "$($names[$i])"; $i++ }
+                                                   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidData: (:) [Rename-Item], ParameterBindingValidationException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : ParameterArgumentValidationErrorEmptyStringNotAllowed,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Rena
   meItemCommand

              Maybe the command needs ‘.pdf’ somewhere?

              • @d3Xt3r
                3•3 months ago

                Well yeah, you need the full name of the file. PowerShell will not automatically asumme the extension of a file.

                Also that empty string error means there’s a blank line somewhere in your input list, so you’ll need to get rid of that.

                • @[email protected]OP
                  1•3 months ago

                  Just figured it out! Added ‘.pdf’ in the second half of the command.

                  $names = cat "\path\to\names.txt"; $i=0; dir | % { ren $_ "$($names[$i]).pdf"; $i++ }

                  Thanks for all your help!

    • @[email protected]OP
      1•3 months ago

      Also I had someone help with a similar task of duplicating a Word file that is renamed from a list of names found in a csv file. What would be the code when a txt file is used?

      Import-csv ‘.\individuals.csv’ | foreach-object {
    $newname = ‘2’ + $_.name + '.docx’
    Copy-item '.\_2023 Summary Page.docx' $newname
}
      • @d3Xt3r
        2•3 months ago

        deleted by creator

        • @[email protected]
          2•3 months ago

          That will crash if there is more than one line in individuals.txt, because by the second iteration ‘.\_2023 Summary Page.docx’ has been renamed.