Powershell：如何按时间顺序批量重命名文件并按日期排序

Question

I have more than 1000 photos that I want to rename into "ngimg-" therefore should yield "ngimg-1, ngimg-2, ngimg-3..." and on and on until the last photo.

I would like to use PowerShell for this task instead of installing third party applications.

I've tried this code here but it's not the proper one for this task

Dir *.jpg | sort Date | ForEach-Object -begin { $count=1 }  -process { rename-item $_ -NewName "image$count.jpg"; $count++ }

I'm not sure if that code above is right. I just made it up from this:

Dir *.jpg | ForEach-Object  -begin { $count=1 }  -process { rename-item $_ -NewName "image$count.jpg"; $count++ }

I would appreciate any help. Thank you

Update: To add to my question, I want to have the files sorted by date first and then be renamed, therefore, it should be like this:

01/01/2020 = ngimg-1
01/02/2020 = ngimg-2
01/03/2020 = ngimg-3
...and so on

Answer 1

I would format the count number with 4 digits, since you have (more than) 1000 images, so they will sort correctly after renaming them.

Something like this:

$count = 1
Get-ChildItem -Path 'D:\Test' -Filter '*.jpg' -File |
Sort-Object LastWriteTime |
Rename-Item -NewName { 'ngimg-{0:D4}{1}' -f $script:count++, $_.Extension } -WhatIf

Take off the -WhatIf safety switch if you have seen the code would have renamed all files as you like. With tha switch on, no file is actually renamed.

The $script:count++ is needed here because otherwise, the scriptblock for Rename-Item does not know the $count variable and then the index number will not be incremented on each file.

^{Of course, change the path 'D:\Test' into the folder path where your image files are..}

---

To demonstrate here two screenshots.

Before:

As you can see in the second column (Date) the files are now shown sorted by Name, so the file dates are not in chronoligical order.

After:

After renaming, the dates ARE in chronological order while still we show the list sorted by Name.

Answer 2

As suggested by @js2010 I think you need to make sure your Sort operation finishes before pipelining it to the rename. This is easily done with parenthesis like below.

$count = 1
(Get-ChildItem -Path 'D:\Test' -Filter '*.jpg' -File | Sort CreationTime) | Rename-Item -NewName { 'ngimg-{0:D4}{1}' -f $script:count++, $_.Extension } -WhatIf

With so many pictures it might be trying to batch the execution. The parenthesis makes sure it finishes sorting before it starts renaming.

Answer 3

That should work, more or less. I would put parentheses around the first part so it finishes first (the sorting probably does the same thing). I assume you want to sort by lastwritetime, since you don't state it in the question.

dir | select name,LastWriteTime

Name      LastWriteTime
----      -------------
file1.jpg 7/1/2020 10:19:26 AM
file2.jpg 7/1/2020 10:19:30 AM
file3.jpg 7/1/2020 10:19:33 AM


(Dir *.jpg) | sort LastWriteTime | ForEach { $count=1 } { rename-item $_ -NewName ngimg-$count.jpg -whatif; $count++ }

What if: Performing the operation "Rename File" on target "Item: C:\Users\js\foo\file1.jpg Destination: C:\Users\js\foo\ngimg-1.jpg".
What if: Performing the operation "Rename File" on target "Item: C:\Users\js\foo\file2.jpg Destination: C:\Users\js\foo\ngimg-2.jpg".
What if: Performing the operation "Rename File" on target "Item: C:\Users\js\foo\file3.jpg Destination: C:\Users\js\foo\ngimg-3.jpg".