I have a set of DAT files that I am wanting to change the extension to part of the filename

[G+_Wesley Robinson]

I have a set of .DAT files that I am wanting to change the extension to part of the filename. Example: bdaily0710.DAT I am wanting to change it to bdaily07.10 and drop the .DAT. Is this something I can do with python or a batch file that I can automate.

[G+_Dan Sarauer (N3m1sys)]

Just a file rename? That could be accomplished with your choice of language, and then scheduled to run at a set interval.

[G+_Rudy Rodriguez]

What program created the .DAT data file? If the filename is changed, will the intended program that reads this file still be able to use this file?

[G+_Wesley Robinson]

The .DAT file is generated from an outside source. The file is a CAD database entry that needs to be changed before the CAD program will be able to use it. Currently I am having to rename them everyday. The initial file is coming in as allam####YYMMDD.DAT where #### are an incremented sequence everyday and the rest is the date. The file name I need is bdailyMM.DD. I have written a couple of batch files that rename the ####YY to bdaily and drop the allam off the front of the file but i cant figure out how to drop the .DAT and move the decimal to where the DD is the extension.

[G+_Darryl Medley]

Easy enough to do in Python:

# Python file rename program

# Rename files from somename123.DAT to somename1.23

 

import os

 

print "Renaming Files...\n",

RenCount = 0

for filename in os.listdir("."):

   if filename.endswith(".DAT"):

      # Remove ".DAT"

      NewName = filename[:-4]

      if len(NewName) >= 3:

         NewName = NewName[:-2] + "." + NewName[-2:]

         os.rename(filename, NewName)

#         print filename, NewName   

         RenCount += 1

 

print "Finished. Files Renamed:",RenCount

[G+_Dan Sarauer (N3m1sys)]

Also if you wanted to use batch files, you could always do the following:

 

for /F %%f in ('dir /b *.dat') do (

    rem Drops the .dat extension

    set fName=%%~nf

    

    rem rename output file to bdailyMM.DD

    rename "%%f" "bdaily%fName:~-4,2%.%fName:~-2%

)

[G+_Wesley Robinson]

Daniel Sarauer  I tried this batch file but it is telling me access denied on each one of the files. Any ideas?

[G+_Dan Sarauer (N3m1sys)]

Access denied? I'd venture a guess that you may need elevated privileges. Did you try running as administrator?

[G+_Wesley Robinson]

Thanks that did fix the access denied but it seems to be trying to run in the system32 folder, not the directory that it is located in.

[G+_Wesley Robinson]

I got that by starting the file with pushd %~dp0

but now it says that a duplicate file exists of the file cannot be found.

[G+_Dan Sarauer (N3m1sys)]

You'll need something to make the files unique then since we took out the unique identifier. Otherwise you'll be left with a bunch of files (if there were multiples for a specified day) named bdaily07.14 for example.

[G+_Wesley Robinson]

Each one that i have has its own date on it. Also there are never multiples on a single day. The files that I have in the dir now are bdaily0707.dat 08 09 10 11 12 and 13. I dont currently have any duplicates

[G+_Wesley Robinson]

It almost looks like it is trying to rename the file the exact same thing as the original. Does the original need to be placed in a temp folder?

[G+_Wesley Robinson]

Darryl Medley I tried running this also but it is giving me an invalid syntax and highlighting the " after \n 

[G+_Darryl Medley]

Wesley Robinson Sorry about that. There is a comma at the end of that line that shouldn't be there. It should just be:

print "Renaming Files...\n"

For some reason I didn't get an error running under Windows / IDLE.

[G+_Wesley Robinson]

That's ok. I was able to get it to work by commenting out the two print lines. Thanks everyone for all the help.