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IDEA - a simple way to batch rearrange blocks of text within filenames

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jovejupiter:
Hi

I'm looking for a simple way to rearrange blocks of text within filenames as a batch process.

The reason is that I enjoy listening to old US radio adventure and scifi series from the 1940s and 50s, such as Suspense, Escape and DimensionX. A lot of shows are in circulation but the file naming style varies - for example showname-date-episodenumber-episodetitle.mp3 or showname-episodenumber-date-episodetitle and so on. I'd like to be able to get a consistent set of names to help identify duplicates etc.

The program would need to take a filename of the form AxBxCxDxE.*, where A,B,C,D and E are blocks of text of at least one character, and x represents a spacer character which could be any valid character for XP filenames. It would then rearrange the name to, for example BxExDxCxA.*, or whatever sequence was required, and repeat the process for all of the files in a specified folder.

I imagine the interface would be a window with three boxes - one box to specify the folder containing the files to me renamed (ideally with the usual browse button), one box to specify the spacer character and one box to list the required sequence of text block in the new file names.

An alternative would be a command line program where the command would look something like:
c:\path\program c:\folder x 53214
where the files are located in c:\folder, the spacer character is x and the rename process would be AxBxCxDxE.* changed to ExCxBxAxD.*

Ideally the program should handle filenames with up to 9 blocks of text

I've searched the net for a suitable program but only found one which claimed to be able to do it. Unfortunately it had vast numbers of options (total overkill for this application), had a confusing interface and was very poorly documented. As a result I never managed to get it to work properly

A simple solution would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Tony

mouser:
this sounds like a nice feature to have in a renamer -
but before someone like skrommel tries to write this, might i recommend instead we look for a renamer which already supports something like this using regular expression rename, which would work well in this case.

f0dder:
Yes, a RegEx file renamer would be very nifty... I know some irc guy who wrote one a while ago (main purpose was renaming MP3s I think), but I haven't seen him in a while :/

mouser:
surely most of the renamers support regex rename

mouser:
though i have to admit that the basic procedure being asked for is a nice idea -
might i add to this the ability to CHANGE the separator character.

ie change from
A,B,C,D
to
D - B - A

i still think is kind of crazy to write this separately from a renamer as a new project.

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