Complex variable string in PowerShell

Question

So I have hundreds of files in a folder:

The files are always First_Last (MMM yyyy):

C:\Test\Bob_Johnson (May 2017).pdf
C:\Test\James_Smith (Apr 2017).pdf

They get moved to individual folders based on their filenames (I think I know how to move the files). The folders are named Last, First 00-0000 where the zeros are the case number.

The following script will remove the (MMM yyyy) from the filenames:

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Test | ?{ ($_.PsIsContainer)} | %{
    $File = ($_.name.substring(0,$_.basename.length-11))
    Write-Host $File
}

Output:

Bob_Johnson
James_Smith

Great. But it needs to be "Last, First".

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Test | ?{!($_.PsIsContainer)} | %{
    $File = ($_.BaseName -split '_')[1] + ", " + ($_.BaseName -split '_')[0]
    Write-Host $File
}

Output:

Johnson (May 2017), Bob
Smith (Apr 2017), James

So here's my question: how do I combine the substring and the split so that it trims the last 11 characters and rearranges the first and last names with a ", " in between?

Desired Output:

Johnson, Bob
Smith, James

Mark Wragg · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-11 12:56:11Z

2

It's not the most elegant solution, but I think you could just do this:

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Test | ?{ ($_.PsIsContainer)} | %{
    $File = ($_.name.substring(0,$_.basename.length-11))
    $File = ($File -split '_')[1] + ", " + ($File -split '_')[0]
    Write-Host $File
}

answered May 11, 2017 at 12:56

Mark Wragg

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1 Comment

midnightfm Over a year ago

Wow. So simple, yet so elusive. I tried so many variations including one similar to this. But I think instead of the 2nd variable declaration where it splits, I put "$_.BaseName -split" instead of "$File -split". This seems to work perfectly with my code and everything is getting moved to its correct folder. Thank you!

Martin Brandl · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-11 12:58:43Z

0

Here a solution using regex:

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Test | ?{!($_.PsIsContainer)} | %{
    $regexMatch = [regex]::Match($_.BaseName, '(\w+)_(\w+)\s+\((\w+)\s+(\d+)')
    $File = '{0}, {1} {2}-{3}' -f $regexMatch.Groups[1].Value, $regexMatch.Groups[2].Value, $regexMatch.Groups[3].Value, $regexMatch.Groups[4].Value
    Write-Host $File
}

Output:

Bob, Johnson May-2017

answered May 11, 2017 at 12:58

Martin Brandl

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