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DOS Compare File Name

Posted on 2013-01-08

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Last Modified: 2013-04-26

Hello,

Can someone help me,

I’m having 2 files named the same way but having the date stamp and second stamp at the end ( YYYY-MM-DD HH-MM-SS)

Exemple : PDF Flash Color Daily Sales Flash2013-01-08 08.32.41.326.pdf
PDF Flash Color Daily Sales Flash2013-01-08 08.45.41.326.pdf

And I would like to ensure to copy only the most resent one. How can I do that ?

This need to be done in batch.

Thanks a lot

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Question by:youpa

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2 Comments

LVL 85

Expert Comment

by:oBdA

ID: 387559142013-01-08

Since you have a sensible naming convention (that is, yyyymmdd instead of mmddyyyy), you can just use a regular directory sorting and pick the last one. The script below is in test mode and will only display the copy command; remove the uppercase ECHO in front of "copy" to run it for real:

@echo off
setlocal
set SourceFolder=C:\Source
set TargetFolder=C:\Target
set Prefix=PDF Flash Color Daily Sales Flash
for /f "delims=" %%a in ('dir /b /o:n "%SourceFolder%\%Prefix%*.pdf"') do set LatestFile=%%a
echo Latest file: %LatestFile%
ECHO copy "%SourceFolder%\%LatestFile%" "%TargetFolder%"

Open in new window

If the actual time stamps of the files are correct, you could use those, too, by changing "/o:n" to "/o:d" in line 6.

LVL 56

Accepted Solution

by:Bill Prew

Bill Prew earned 2000 total points

ID: 387567672013-01-08

Here's a slightly different variation, that sorts the matching files in reverse order so that once it copies the latest one it leaves the loop. Small gain in performance, and if there really are just two files doesn't matter a lot, but wanted to share it just as a slight alternate approach.

@echo off
setlocal

set BaseDir=C:\Source
set DestDir=C:\Target
set Filename=PDF Flash Color Daily Sales Flash*.pdf

for /F "tokens=*" %%F in ('dir /B /O-N "%BaseDir%\%Filename%"') do (
  copy "%BaseDir%\%%~F" "%DestDir%"
  goto :CopyDone
)
:CopyDone

Open in new window

~bp

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