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Extracting names from filename in Bash

4

0

I have a directory filled with thousands of files in the format LastnameFirstnameYYYYMMDD.pdf. The last and first name will always been in title case.

I'd like to extract the last name so I can move these files to a directory structure of first letter of last name/lastname/full filename. Example: DoeJohn20190327 would be moved to D/Doe/DoeJohn20190327

regex

share|improve this question

edited yesterday

Peter Mortensen

1,03421016

asked 2 days ago

Joseph MoorJoseph Moor

211

New contributor

Joseph Moor is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

• 
  
  
  

  
  3
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Check out 'sed' and 'awk'
  
  – Tintin
  2 days ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I'm not sure if the final destination of the file DoeJohn20190327.pdf is like this: D/Doe/DoeJohn20190327/DoeJohn20190327.pdf or D/Doe/DoeJohn20190327/DoeJohn20190327.pdf ?
  
  – Philippe Delteil
  2 days ago
  
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

4

0

I have a directory filled with thousands of files in the format LastnameFirstnameYYYYMMDD.pdf. The last and first name will always been in title case.

I'd like to extract the last name so I can move these files to a directory structure of first letter of last name/lastname/full filename. Example: DoeJohn20190327 would be moved to D/Doe/DoeJohn20190327

regex

share|improve this question

edited yesterday

Peter Mortensen

1,03421016

asked 2 days ago

Joseph MoorJoseph Moor

211

New contributor

Joseph Moor is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

• 
  
  
  

  
  3
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Check out 'sed' and 'awk'
  
  – Tintin
  2 days ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I'm not sure if the final destination of the file DoeJohn20190327.pdf is like this: D/Doe/DoeJohn20190327/DoeJohn20190327.pdf or D/Doe/DoeJohn20190327/DoeJohn20190327.pdf ?
  
  – Philippe Delteil
  2 days ago
  
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

I have a directory filled with thousands of files in the format LastnameFirstnameYYYYMMDD.pdf. The last and first name will always been in title case.

I'd like to extract the last name so I can move these files to a directory structure of first letter of last name/lastname/full filename. Example: DoeJohn20190327 would be moved to D/Doe/DoeJohn20190327

regex

share|improve this question

edited yesterday

Peter Mortensen

1,03421016

asked 2 days ago

Joseph MoorJoseph Moor

211

New contributor

Joseph Moor is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

share|improve this question

edited yesterday

Peter Mortensen

1,03421016

asked 2 days ago

Joseph MoorJoseph Moor

211

New contributor

Joseph Moor is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

share|improve this question

edited yesterday

Peter Mortensen

1,03421016

asked 2 days ago

Joseph MoorJoseph Moor

211

New contributor

Joseph Moor is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

edited yesterday

Peter Mortensen

1,03421016

edited yesterday

Peter Mortensen

1,03421016

asked 2 days ago

Joseph MoorJoseph Moor

211

New contributor

Joseph Moor is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

asked 2 days ago

Joseph MoorJoseph Moor

211

2 Answers
2

active

oldest

votes

5

Here you have a solution. I tested it an it creates the folders as you explained.

for filename in *.pdf
do
 echo "Processing file $filename "
 first_letter="$filename:0:1"
 mkdir -p $first_letter #if already exists won't print error
 last_name=$(echo $filename | sed 's/([^[:blank:]])([[:upper:]])/1 2/g' |awk 'print $1')
 mkdir -p $first_letter/$last_name
 mv $filename $first_letter/$last_name
done

share|improve this answer

edited 2 days ago

answered 2 days ago

Philippe DelteilPhilippe Delteil

5601422

add a comment | 

4

If the lastname is always the shortest trailing string staring with an upper case letter (there are no compound lastnames for example) you could use a shell parameter expansion of the form $parameter%pattern in place of a regex solution.

Ex.

for f in [[:upper:]]*[[:upper:]]*; do 
 d="$f:0:1/$f%[[:upper:]]*/"
 echo mkdir -p "$d"
 echo mv "$f" "$d"
done
mkdir -p D/Doe/
mv DoeJohn20190327 D/Doe/

Remove the echos when you are satisfied that it is doing the right thing.

See for example Parameter Expansion

share|improve this answer

answered 2 days ago

steeldriversteeldriver

70.5k11114187

add a comment | 

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5

Here you have a solution. I tested it an it creates the folders as you explained.

for filename in *.pdf
do
 echo "Processing file $filename "
 first_letter="$filename:0:1"
 mkdir -p $first_letter #if already exists won't print error
 last_name=$(echo $filename | sed 's/([^[:blank:]])([[:upper:]])/1 2/g' |awk 'print $1')
 mkdir -p $first_letter/$last_name
 mv $filename $first_letter/$last_name
done

share|improve this answer

edited 2 days ago

answered 2 days ago

Philippe DelteilPhilippe Delteil

5601422

add a comment | 

5

Here you have a solution. I tested it an it creates the folders as you explained.

for filename in *.pdf
do
 echo "Processing file $filename "
 first_letter="$filename:0:1"
 mkdir -p $first_letter #if already exists won't print error
 last_name=$(echo $filename | sed 's/([^[:blank:]])([[:upper:]])/1 2/g' |awk 'print $1')
 mkdir -p $first_letter/$last_name
 mv $filename $first_letter/$last_name
done

share|improve this answer

edited 2 days ago

answered 2 days ago

Philippe DelteilPhilippe Delteil

5601422

add a comment | 

Here you have a solution. I tested it an it creates the folders as you explained.

for filename in *.pdf
do
 echo "Processing file $filename "
 first_letter="$filename:0:1"
 mkdir -p $first_letter #if already exists won't print error
 last_name=$(echo $filename | sed 's/([^[:blank:]])([[:upper:]])/1 2/g' |awk 'print $1')
 mkdir -p $first_letter/$last_name
 mv $filename $first_letter/$last_name
done

share|improve this answer

edited 2 days ago

answered 2 days ago

Philippe DelteilPhilippe Delteil

5601422

for filename in *.pdf
do
 echo "Processing file $filename "
 first_letter="$filename:0:1"
 mkdir -p $first_letter #if already exists won't print error
 last_name=$(echo $filename | sed 's/([^[:blank:]])([[:upper:]])/1 2/g' |awk 'print $1')
 mkdir -p $first_letter/$last_name
 mv $filename $first_letter/$last_name
done

share|improve this answer

edited 2 days ago

answered 2 days ago

Philippe DelteilPhilippe Delteil

5601422

answered 2 days ago

Philippe DelteilPhilippe Delteil

5601422

answered 2 days ago

Philippe DelteilPhilippe Delteil

5601422

4

If the lastname is always the shortest trailing string staring with an upper case letter (there are no compound lastnames for example) you could use a shell parameter expansion of the form $parameter%pattern in place of a regex solution.

Ex.

for f in [[:upper:]]*[[:upper:]]*; do 
 d="$f:0:1/$f%[[:upper:]]*/"
 echo mkdir -p "$d"
 echo mv "$f" "$d"
done
mkdir -p D/Doe/
mv DoeJohn20190327 D/Doe/

Remove the echos when you are satisfied that it is doing the right thing.

See for example Parameter Expansion

share|improve this answer

answered 2 days ago

steeldriversteeldriver

70.5k11114187

add a comment | 

4

If the lastname is always the shortest trailing string staring with an upper case letter (there are no compound lastnames for example) you could use a shell parameter expansion of the form $parameter%pattern in place of a regex solution.

Ex.

for f in [[:upper:]]*[[:upper:]]*; do 
 d="$f:0:1/$f%[[:upper:]]*/"
 echo mkdir -p "$d"
 echo mv "$f" "$d"
done
mkdir -p D/Doe/
mv DoeJohn20190327 D/Doe/

Remove the echos when you are satisfied that it is doing the right thing.

See for example Parameter Expansion

share|improve this answer

answered 2 days ago

steeldriversteeldriver

70.5k11114187

add a comment | 

If the lastname is always the shortest trailing string staring with an upper case letter (there are no compound lastnames for example) you could use a shell parameter expansion of the form $parameter%pattern in place of a regex solution.

Ex.

for f in [[:upper:]]*[[:upper:]]*; do 
 d="$f:0:1/$f%[[:upper:]]*/"
 echo mkdir -p "$d"
 echo mv "$f" "$d"
done
mkdir -p D/Doe/
mv DoeJohn20190327 D/Doe/

Remove the echos when you are satisfied that it is doing the right thing.

See for example Parameter Expansion

share|improve this answer

answered 2 days ago

steeldriversteeldriver

70.5k11114187

for f in [[:upper:]]*[[:upper:]]*; do 
 d="$f:0:1/$f%[[:upper:]]*/"
 echo mkdir -p "$d"
 echo mv "$f" "$d"
done
mkdir -p D/Doe/
mv DoeJohn20190327 D/Doe/

share|improve this answer

answered 2 days ago

steeldriversteeldriver

70.5k11114187

answered 2 days ago

steeldriversteeldriver

70.5k11114187

answered 2 days ago

steeldriversteeldriver

70.5k11114187