Any way to make a batch script to rename the most recent file?

found scripts to locate a the most recent file, and scripts to rename files, but no combination.

basically id need a script to rename, the most recent .pdf file added to "W:\Declarations", to 'decs365.pdf'

any help is greatly appreciated

Paul Black said:

Hello @ReallyFrustratd,



Perhaps if you posted the scripts you have, it will give us a better idea of exactly what you are referring to!

Anyway, this will hopefully get you STARTED.

I am NOT able to test this at present, but I think you would want something along the lines of [ save the .bat file in the W:\Declarations directory ] . . .

Code:

@echo off
for /f %%i in ('dir /b /a-d /od /t:c "*.pdf"') do (
  set LastFileCreated=%%i
)
echo  The Last File Created is %LastFileCreated%
pause
:: ren %LastFileCreated% "decs365.pdf"
pause

If the output shows the correct file, then remove the :: from the code. This should then rename the file.

IMPORTANT: This is just Pseudo code. Test at your OWN RISK.

I hope this helps.

first of all, thank you
unfortunately I didn't save the scripts I found because they didn't work
I should have been more specific, well id like to have a batch file on the desktop, with a script that looks for the newest .pdf file in specified paths namely W:\Declarations\Alpha\; W:\Declarations\Beta\; W:\Declarations\Gama\ and so on, and renames it/them to descs365, the existing file names are never the same, so thats why id like it to go for the newest one in there, instead of a specific name. And I have to do this at the start of every month

Paul Black said:

Code:

@echo off
for /f %%i in ('dir /b /a-d /od /t:c "*.pdf"') do (
  set LastFileCreated=%%i
)
echo  The Last File Created is %LastFileCreated%
pause
:: ren %LastFileCreated% "decs365.pdf"
pause

I ran your code and got the following output:

Paul Black said:

Did you have a .PDF file named A?

The file name is A PDF file.pdf, as shown in my screenshot above.
Your code does not support a name containing spaces.

Paul Black said:

IMPORTANT:This is just Pseudo code. Test at your OWN RISK.

No risk at all. A PDF file.pdf is for testing only.

Does this work ?

Code:

@echo off


for /f "tokens=*" %%i in ('dir /b /a-d /od /t:c "*.pdf"') do (
  set LastFileCreated="%%i"
)
echo  The Last File Created is %LastFileCreated%

pause

echo  ren %LastFileCreated% "decs365.pdf"

pause

Paul Black said:

I was on a train on the underground so I quickly put that together for him!

I admire your efforts to help people for 24 hours a day!