DONE: Tally folder contents by file date

[nkormanik]

Suppose we have a folder with 100 files.

Objective is to create a text file with a list of dates and tally of those dates based on the 100 files.

Example:

2018-09-22 7
2018-09-19 8
2018-09-14 11
...
2018-09-3 1

Space separator between date and tally number.

No spaces within date.

Result can be sorted, or not.  Preference is to sort by date.

File name output should be same as folder name.  Plus .txt.

No need for GUI.  Command-line preferred, for creation of batch files (say, acting on lots of different folders).

Resultant .txt file should be created in same folder as executable, wherever user wants to keep that.

Parameter after executable should be folder path where files reside.

Example:

Tally_by_date.exe "C:\Program Files\My Program 123"

Use of piping might be okay.

Example:

Tally_by_date.exe "C:\Program Files\My Program 123" >> "My Program 123"

Any help greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Nicholas Kormanik

[wraith808]

And by date, do you mean cration date of the files, modification date, or something else?

[nkormanik]

Creation date.

Thanks for asking!

[wraith808]

You can download it from https://my.pcloud.co...AxYJFJUz9dOpvmb4fLby

There are two files in the 75kb archive... TallyFiles.exe and CommandLine.dll.

Run TallyFiles to see the options, but they are

        [Option('d', "directory", Required = true, HelpText = "Directory to Scan")]
        [Option('f', "format", Required = false, HelpText = "Format of Date (Default yyyy-MM-dd)")]
        [Option('o', "output", Required = false, HelpText = "output filename (default name of directory, stored in directory)")]
        [Option('c', "compare", Required = false, HelpText = "compare to [C]reation Date or Last [A]ccess Date or Last [W]rite Date")]


So by default, if you run TallyFiles d=c:\test it will tally the files in c:\test and store them in c:\test\text.txt.  Formats are c# datetime formats (https://docs.microso...-time-format-strings), and if you specify an output filename, it will store it there. 

Requires .NET 4.5.2

Let me know if you have any questions.

Update: Added ability to use write and last access dates.

[Nod5]

I could use something like that too so here is an alternative implementation in AutoHotkey

Code: Autohotkey [Select]

1. #NoEnv
2. #SingleInstance force
3.  
4. ;Tally_by_date.ahk
5. ;by nod5
6.  
7. ;- compile it and run from the command line with a folder path as parameter
8. ;- outputs a date sorted tally of date created for all files in the input folder
9.  
10. ; example input: tally_by_date.exe "C:\this folder\folder"
11.  
12. ; example output: C:\this folder\folder\Tally_by_date -- 201809220631.txt
13. ; with the content:
14. ; 2018-07-23 9
15. ; 2018-08-03 4
16. ; ...
17.  
18. folder := A_Args[1]
19.  
20. if !InStr( FileExist(folder), "D")
21.   ;not folder
22.   exitapp
23.  
24. f_array := []
25.  
26. ;loop over all files in folder, exclude folders and do not recurse
27. Loop, Files, % folder "\*.*"
28. {
29.   ;get date in YYYY-MM-DD format
30.   FormatTime, date_var, % A_LoopFileTimeCreated, yyyy-MM-dd
31.   f_array[date_var] := f_array[date_var] ? f_array[date_var] + 1 : 1
32. }
33. For key, val in f_array
34.   out .= key " " val "`n"
35.  
36. FileAppend, % out , % folder "\Tally_by_date -- " A_now ".txt"

[4wd]

From here: Powershell version

TallyCreateDate.ps1

Code: PowerShell [Select]

1. Get-ChildItem $args -File | Group {$_.CreationTime.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd")} | Sort Name | Format-Table Name,Count -auto

eg.

.\TallyCreateDate.ps1 "Z:\test folder" >"test folder.txt"

Output:

Code: Text [Select]

1. Name       Count
2. ----       -----
3. 2015-02-02     1
4. 2015-06-09     1
5. 2015-06-28     1
6. 2015-07-21     1
7. 2015-08-29     1
8. 2015-10-24     1
9. 2015-12-16     1
10. 2016-01-15     1
11. 2016-05-27     1
12. 2016-06-20     1
13. 2016-07-10     4
14. 2016-07-12     2
15. 2017-11-01     1
16. 2018-04-05     1
17. 2018-04-14     4
18. 2018-07-14     2
19. 2018-08-03     1
20. 2018-08-08     1
21. 2018-08-10     1
22. 2018-08-13     4
23. 2018-08-14     1
24. 2018-08-17     3
25. 2018-09-19     1
26. 2018-09-24     1

[IainB]

From here: Powershell version ...

-4wd (September 24, 2018, 06:50 AM)

Ohh...nice find.   

[4wd]

From here: Powershell version ...

-4wd (September 24, 2018, 06:50 AM)

Ohh...nice find.   

-IainB (September 24, 2018, 07:14 AM)

The power of Google

This'll do every sub-folder of the given folder with matching output names:

Code: PowerShell [Select]

1. $folders = Get-ChildItem $args -Directory
2. for ($i = 0; $i -lt $folders.Count; $i++) {
3.   $file = $folders[$i].BaseName + ".txt"
4.   Get-ChildItem $folders[$i].Fullname -File |
5.     Group {$_.CreationTime.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd")} |
6.     Sort Name |
7.     Format-Table Name,Count -Auto |
8.     Out-File -FilePath $file
9. }

[nkormanik]

wraith808, beautifully done.  Thanks a million.

TallyFiles -d "C:\Windows System Tools" -o "Windows System Tools.txt"

Two enhancement requests:

1.  Allow the default output file save location be to where TallyFiles.exe resides and is executed from (via batch file there) (instead of folder being acted upon, presently the default save location).

Thus, command would be merely:

TallyFiles -d "C:\Windows System Tools"

(and .txt extension would be added to "Windows System Tools")

2.  I specified "Creation Date."  Could we have the option of "Date Modified"?

You might already be allowing for this through your -c, --compare option.  But I don't understand how it works, if so.

Great job!

Thanks again.

Nicholas

[highend01]

My 2 cents...

[Select]

TallyFiles.exe "path_1" "path_2" "path_X" [/fmt="yyyy-mm-dd" /date="c"]

- No dependencies
- It allows multiple paths in one call. If they contain spaces, double quotes are a necessity!
- Environment variables in paths are supported, e.g. "%windir%\Fonts"
- /fmt and /date are both optional (and can be used independently from each other)
- It should be clear that the same /fmt and /date values are used for all paths^^
- /fmt allows these elements:
  yyyy - 4 digit year
  yy   - 2 digit year
  mm   - 2 digit month
  dd   - 2 digit day
  hh   - 2 digit hour
  ii   - 2 digit minute
  ss   - 2 digit second
  The default is "yyyy-mm-dd"
- /date can be "c", "m" or "a" where "c" is the default

E.g.:
TallyFiles.exe "%windir%\Fonts"
will write a file named "Fonts.txt" into TallFiles.exe's location (in ascii format) with the creation date (sort method: ascending)

TallyFiles.exe "%windir%\Fonts" /date="m"
The same as above, this time with modified dates

etc.

The attachment contains a x86 and a x64 version...

[wraith808]

wraith808, beautifully done.  Thanks a million.

TallyFiles -d "C:\Windows System Tools" -o "Windows System Tools.txt"

Two enhancement requests:

1.  Allow the default output file save location be to where TallyFiles.exe resides and is executed from (via batch file there) (instead of folder being acted upon, presently the default save location).

Thus, command would be merely:

TallyFiles -d "C:\Windows System Tools"

(and .txt extension would be added to "Windows System Tools")

2.  I specified "Creation Date."  Could we have the option of "Date Modified"?

You might already be allowing for this through your -c, --compare option.  But I don't understand how it works, if so.

Great job!

Thanks again.

Nicholas

-nkormanik (September 26, 2018, 12:57 AM)

I can do the first easily... will update later today.  As far as the second, the -c is the way to do that.  Three properties on the FileInfo object in windows are: [C]reation Date or Last [A]ccess Date or Last [W]rite Date.

I know last write date is the last day it was written (i.e. modified) and the create date is pretty obvious.  I haven't been able to figure out how it computes last access date.  So to change your command line above. 

Code: Text [Select]

1. TallyFiles -d "C:\Windows System Tools" -c W

And even currently, you don't have to put output; it infers it from the folder name.  You only have to specify that if you want a different name from the folder name.

[nkormanik]

Output file still ends up in 'acted-upon' folder.

Prefer output file to be created in folder where TallyFiles.exe resides.

Thanks!

[nkormanik]

Curiously the -c W parameter gives some really early dates.  Not sure what it's doing.

Different from 'Date Modified'.

Prefer 'Date Modified' option, along with the default 'Date Created'.

Thanks!

[wraith808]

I hadn't updated it yet; unfortunately, I've been a bit busy at work.  It is now updated to save in the run directory by default, though I did add another command line param:

Code: Text [Select]

1. [Option('s', "savedir", Required=false, HelpText = "Save directory.  By default the file stored the in directory where tallyfiles is run")]

As far as the limitations of what it does with the dates, it's a limitation of the information that windows stores in the FileSystemInfo structure.

It has the following properties (and definitions)

FileSystemInfo.LastAccessTime: The time that the current file or directory was last accessed.

FileSystemInfo.CreationTime: Gets or sets the creation time of the current file or directory.

FileSystemInfo.LastWriteTime: Gets or sets the time when the current file or directory was last written to.

[nkormanik]

Beautiful job, wraith808.  Thanks very much.

Skwire, another winner.

[nkormanik]

Thanks also to:

Nod5
4wd
highend01

Terrific skills demonstrated.