[Complete] Consolidate files in the parent folder

[Carol Haynes]

I have an odd problem that I need to solve and I am not sure how to solve it.

There may be a simple tool in Windows or a function in DOpus that can achieve this but I haven't found it.

I have a folder full of many subfolders (actually a number of these folder structures) and each subfolder contains files.

All the file names are unique and I would like to move all the files up a level into the parent folder and then delete all the empty subfolders. Like this:

Before:

Folder
.
SubFolder 1   ... SubFolder 2 .... etc
.
File1                 File 2              etc.


After:

Folder
.
File 1    Files 2  etc


I have tried using a command line but you can't use wild cards for folder names.

Anyone got any ideas?

[Target]

you could try this...

Code

fileselectfolder,MyFold,::{20d04fe0-3aea-1069-a2d8-08002b30309d}

loop, %myfold%\*.*,0,1
{
	If a_loopfiledir <> %myfold%
		filemove, %a_loopfilefullpath%,%myfold%
}

loop, %myfold%\*.*,2,1
	fileremovedir, %a_loopfilefullpath%,1
		
exitapp		

prompts for a folder, then moves all files from the subfolders to the root (files in subfolders are identified as having a different directory path than those in the root), then deletes all the subfolders

there are probably more elegant solutions, but this was quick - a brief tests indicates it works as advertised (though maybe best to test it for yourself...)

EDIT: simplified the code

[Carol Haynes]

Thanks I will give it a try in the morning

[mouser]

i'm, sure you've thought of this carol but one worry is what happens if different files with same name are located in different subdirectories.

[Carol Haynes]

That wasn't the problem in the case - all the file names were unique.

Couldn't wait until morning - works great. Exactly what I needed in this case

A few pennies winging there way and on Target 

[Target]

you're most welcome Carol!!

i did consider what Mouser said, but you'd already said the filenames were all unique (I could change it to cater for that if you want...)

and thanks for the credits (not necessary, but appreciated)

[exold]

If you're trying to do this somewhere you only have access to CMD.EXE, I'm pretty sure you can use FOR..IN..DO to get the job done. It's a little-known tool that provides a lot of powerful functionality. The UI is crap, though....

[bootz15]

This is awesome! I would really like to see the code that assumes the sub-files are not uniquely named, too.

[Ampa]

In Xplorer2 you can flatten a folder structure by selecting the folder and pressing Shift+Enter. This shows all files within the folder and subfolders in a single pane, at which point you can move / rename or do anything else with them.

Perhaps DOpus has something similar?

[vixay]

I have done some more modifications to suit my purpose, which was to rename the files to include the folder path it had.
i.e.

root
a
   1
b
   1
   2

would become

root
a-1
b-1
b-2

here's the code for it
FlattenWithFolderNames.ahk

Code

fileselectfolder,MyFold,::{20d04fe0-3aea-1069-a2d8-08002b30309d}
SetWorkingDir, %MyFold%
loop, *.*,0,1
{
	parentpath := RegExReplace(A_LoopFileDir,"\\","-")
	;StringReplace, parentpath, A_LoopFileDir, \,-,All
	newname = %parentpath%-%A_LoopFileName%
	;msgbox %newname%
	If a_loopfiledir <>
		filemove, %a_loopfilefullpath%,%newname%
}

loop, %myfold%\*.*,2,1
	fileremovedir, %a_loopfilefullpath%,1
		
exitapp

[Carol Haynes]

Neat idea which should avoid naming conflicts