How to loop through files and rename using PowerShell?

powershell

Solution

You can do this fairly simply in PowerShell:

ls *.jpg | Foreach -Begin {$i=1} `
   -Process {Rename-Item $_ -NewName ("Picture{0:00000000}.jpg" -f $i++) -whatif}

If you're looking for the "basename" and if you're on PowerShell 2.0 just use the Basename property that PowerShell adds to each FileInfo object:

ls *.jpg | Format-Table Basename

Note that on PowerShell 1.0, the PowerShell Community Extensions adds this same Basename property.

If the intent is to append a counter string to the file's basename during the rename operation then try this:

ls *.jpg | Foreach {$i=1} `
   {Rename-Item $_ -NewName ("$($_.Basename){0:00000000#}.jpg" -f $i++) -whatif}

Problem

I would like to rename all the jpg files in a folder to uniform convention like Picture00000001.jpg where 00000001 is a counter. It would be a walk in the park in C# but I would think this is the kind of bread and butter stuff that PowerShell was made for. I'm guessing something like ``` $files = ls *.jpg $i=0 foreach($f in $files) { Rename-Item $f -NewName "Picture"+($i++)+".jpg" } ``` But before I hit the gas on this I would like to 1) format the counter, and 2) have some sense that this is in fact even a good idea. If this sounds more like OCD than a good idea please speak up.

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