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Replacing and trimming characters in filenames using a batch file (windoze)

Good morning,

I'm trying to rename some mp3 files and would like to achieve two goals:

1. I want to replace underscores with spaces
2. I want to strip off leading track numbers

For example I would like to take the following filename:

"01 - This_Is_The_Title.mp3"

And convert it to:

"01 - This Is The Title.mp3"

And then to:

"This Is The Title.mp3"

The biggest problem is with stripping numbers off because they are not consistent. For example, I have files like the following:

01This_Is_The_Title.mp3

and

01 - This_Is_The_Title.mp3

I could group similarly named files in directories without too much trouble to solve this and then hand sanitize the rest.

What do you think?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Steve Knight

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ttist25

ASKER

Hey Dragon,

Thanks for your response. I think we're almost there.

Is it possible to separate these into two batch files? 1 that removes the _ and one that strips the first characters?

I think I would better be able to understand and modify the batch file that way.

Also, it's renaming the batch file itself. How would we call to a directory other than root?

Thanks again for your help!

SOLUTION

Qlemo

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ttist25

ASKER

Thanks for your response Qlemo it is greatly appreciated.

I get an error "The syntax of the command is incorrect" when I run this.

I'm using Vista if that makes any difference.

Qlemo

Remove the first line (@echo off), and try again. You should see the command causing that error message.

Above line 10 needs to be corrected, I forgot to quote because of the spaces:
for %%F in ("C:\MP3s\* - *.mp3") do (

Steve Knight

Hi guys, sorry for abondoing. I offered my suggestions originally then wasn't online for the rest of the day then away for a weekend in Wales where the mobile internet signal is still steam driven 2G GPRS (which is better than no signal at all where I went last time I suppose...)

Anyway please let us know if you still need some more help and will be answer.

Steve