Filter Specific Phrase

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Filter Specific Phrase

Postby sadsack5000 » Thu Jun 15, 2017 12:30 am

Hello All,

First time poster so please be gentle.
Im using BRU to swap a date format of filenames from DDMMYYYY to YYYYMMDD
I have the regex expression already which works well but I don't have the filter setting to find ONLY files which still have the date in format DDMMYYYY

e.g.
1V-1080 - 24082017.docx
Some of my files are already
1V-1080 - 20160824.docx which I would like to filter out

Can someone help please?
sadsack5000
 
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Joined: Thu Jun 15, 2017 12:21 am

Re: Filter Specific Phrase

Postby sadsack5000 » Fri Jun 16, 2017 12:31 am

Anyone please?
sadsack5000
 
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Re: Filter Specific Phrase

Postby therube » Fri Jun 16, 2017 1:14 am

Do the file date/time coincide (or basically coincide) with the date in the filename?

Are the files in a particular directory tree (rather then scattered all about)?

You potentially could have some "ambiguous" dates in there, that could meet both the MMDDYYYY & YYYYMMDD criteria.

If you can visually identify the files already in the right order (YYYYMMDD), separate them from those you want to act on.

So if you have a directory of files, if you sort that directory by date, & you have a group of files that you see are dated correctly - the filename's "date" & the date of the file directory entry coincide, then they're already done.

Either don't select those particular files, or move them (temporarily) to a directory outside of the folder you want to work on.

Likewise, using a file manager or Everything (a GREAT utility for finding files/directories), select only those needing a name change & drag them into BRU.
therube
 
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Re: Filter Specific Phrase

Postby sadsack5000 » Fri Jun 16, 2017 5:36 am

Hi therube

Typically the date/time in the file do not coincide with the date in the filename. These docx and pdf files are reports from inspections which are typically carried out before the report is created.
The date in the filename is the date the inspection was completed and is always different from the file creation/modified date.

I have around ~10k of these reports, around 50% of them have now been renamed to the new syntax of YYYYMMDD through a regex I cobbled together from these forums.
I played around for hours to come up with a filter mask: *201*pdf* OR *201*doc* which can filter a list of all reports but it is painstaking to identify those which I have already changed versus those that still need changing

I've been playing around with search masks for hours to try and find one that will allow me to exclude files with a date formatted YYYYMMDD (fixed) and show only DDMMYYYY but I cannot figure it out
sadsack5000
 
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Joined: Thu Jun 15, 2017 12:21 am

Re: Filter Specific Phrase

Postby therube » Fri Jun 16, 2017 1:36 pm

Code: Select all
file:  ext:docx  regex:\s-\s\d{8}\.  !regex:\s-\s201[0-9]


With Everything, search for files (exclude directories), with .docx extension, " - "+8.digits, but not if the first four are 2010-2019.

So with that you've filtered out a good number of files - those that might need closer examination...

If you're able to separate the data sets...
- Those that are DONE (stick them in a DONE folder)
- Those that need REVIEW (stick them in a REVIEW folder)

If you need more extensions just include them...
- ext:docx;pdf;wri


Once you have a set of files you are comfortable in knowing that they are ones you do want to rename, drag them into BRU to perform the rename. (Or maybe drag them into a PENDING directory first, then rename them from there, then drag them from PENDING to DONE.)


(And of course all of this will depend on your actual data sets & how they are laid out & if you're able to compartmentalize like that.)
therube
 
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