Tech: File Editing Help

Subject: FILE EDITING HELP
From: GUEST,Gene
Date: 09 May 03 - 11:53 PM

I have a large collection of mp3 songs over the years that
have a number prefix that i wish to delete - and have them
listed in alphabetical order...such as - EXAMPLE:

01 - Barbara Allen.mp3
01 - Wildwood Flower-Mother Maybelle).mp3
07 - Tennessee Waltz.mp3
08 - Always Late-(Frizzell).mp3
09 - Wildwood Flower-(Hank Thompson).mp3
200 - Wildwood Flower-(Doc Watson).mp3
---
999 - Cold Cold Heart-(Hank Williams).mp3

The object is to have them listed in Alphabetical
Order... from A to Z...

Deleting the [NN - ] one song at a time would require
TOO MUCH EFFORT...

hoping someone knows of a EDITING PROGRAM TO ACCOMPLISH
this... I seem to recall that the original APPLE COMPUTER
had such a utility program...but have never seen one
for IBM COMPATIBLE..

THANKS

Subject: RE: FILE EDITING HELP
From: Amos
Date: 10 May 03 - 12:18 AM

A UNIX machine would let you write a little script to take care of it tickety-boo. I dunno Windows still allows batch files. If so you could write a little one to do it, too.

A

Subject: RE: FILE EDITING HELP
From: IvanB
Date: 10 May 03 - 01:22 AM

A program called PowerRen 2000 can do exactly what you want. It's pretty much disappeared from the Web in its free form, but this site has it yet:

PowerRen 2000

You'll want to do the files in batches according to the number of characters preceding the first letter of the desired file name, but it's still a lot faster than one by one.

If you have any trouble downloading it, post back and I'll work out a way to get it to you if you have an email account where you can receive a 1.6mB attachment.

Good luck!

Subject: RE: FILE EDITING HELP
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 10 May 03 - 01:30 AM

Use a "global" search and replace for the prefix numbers

The NN can become Space Space or ~~ .....or any other consistant figure, even aa or zz or az

They will now alphabetize. Then add 01, to 99 for all duplicate versions of the same songs.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: FILE EDITING HELP
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 10 May 03 - 01:32 AM

BTW - gobal search and replace (under various terms) are a part vitually ANY word processing program of the past ten years.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: FILE EDITING HELP
From: IvanB
Date: 10 May 03 - 01:41 AM

Well, drat! I looked at PowerRen again and it DOESN'T have the ability to remove a given number of characters. I use a utility called 'Better File Rename' which, once installed, appears on the right click menu for any file or directory. Unfortunately, this one isn't free, but it'll do ten files at a time with the trial version and, to my knowledge, there's no time limit. Before I registered it ($14.95), I would select ALL the files I wanted to do in a batch, right-click on one, then set up the BFR parameters. It'll give you a message telling you the trial version will only do ten files. Press the enter key and ten files will be done and the program will exit, with the rest of the files still selected. Since BFR retains the parameters you set until you change them, you can do the rest of the batch by right-clicking, then hitting Enter twice (or three times, I'm not sure). A little tedious, but still better than one at a time.

This one is found here:

Better File Rename

Subject: RE: FILE EDITING HELP
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 10 May 03 - 04:59 AM

Make a safe backup copy of all the original files.

Create a new folder and a copy of all the files in it.

Open a DOS/Command window, go to the new folder and type:

DIR *.*>filelist.txt

This creates a file named filelist.txt that has a list of all the files - and some other garbage - in it.

Open the file in Word and "Edit Replace" every double-space " " with "^t"

The "^t" (without quotes) is Word shorthand for a tab.

Remove excess tabs with "Replace ^t^t with ^t. "Replace All" repeatedly until no changes are shown.

Select everything and Convert Table - Text to Table.

Delecte all rows and columns that have anything other than the filenames.

Copy the filename column to a new column on the right.

Select the column on the right and replace "^#^#^# - " with "nothing" where ^# is Word shorthand for "any number" and "nothing" means make sure the "replace with" box is empty. Equivalent to deleting.
With right column still selected replace "^#^# - " and then "^# - " with "nothing," each in turn.

Clean up any "odd" names so that the column on the left shows the original filename and the column on the right shows the new filenames that you want.

Insert a new column on the left, and type "REN" in each cell (type once and copy down).

Select the whole table and "Tabel - Convert - Table to Text" using tabs as the separator.

Edit Replace "REN^t" with "REN "" (That's REN followed by a space, followed by a double quote.) Replace All.

Edit Replace "^t" with "" "" (Thats double quote, space, double quote.)

Replace ^p with "^p (^p is Word for a paragraph break).

You should now have a list in which each line is:

REN "oldfilename" "newfilename"

This means Rename the file named "oldfilename" to the new name "newfilename"

Save as a text file, and change the file extension to ".bat" so that the file name is now filelist.bat.

Open the Command Prompt. Go to the folder where the filelist.bat and all the files are, type filelist and hit enter.

If it doesn't work - well, at least you made that backup copy.

John

Subject: RE: FILE EDITING HELP
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 10 May 03 - 05:06 AM

And I did overlook that the DIR command that you generate the original list with doesn't put the "." between the filename and the file extension, so you do need to put the extension in, in both columns of names. (.mp3).

Instead of:
Edit Replace "^t" with "" "" (Thats double quote, space, double quote.)
Use:
Edit Replace "^t" with ".mp3" "" (That's .mp3 doublequote space doublequote.)
And instead of:
Replace ^p with "^p (^p is Word for a paragraph break).
Use:
Replace ^p with ".mp3"^p"

Sorry about that.

John

Subject: RE: FILE EDITING HELP
From: MMario
Date: 10 May 03 - 10:10 AM

garg - *READ* the post - it's not a document he's working with, it's filenames. Less easy.

Subject: RE: FILE EDITING HELP
From: Amos
Date: 10 May 03 - 10:34 AM

There's the answer -- still does batch files.

Good 'un.

Might be another path based on chars in the front (If name = 01xxx, delete first 2 chars of file name and rename file to result).


A

Subject: RE: FILE EDITING HELP
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 10 May 03 - 10:50 AM

You could possibly use a simple "COPY ?*.* *.*" to drop the first character of the filename, but the various ways that different versions of DOS handle long filenames makes it risky - especially without knowing what version Gene is working with - and his examples are "longs." It would also require separating the 5 char, 6 char, and 7 char prefixed files for separate processing.

The script is not really difficult to build in Word, even if there are several steps to it. The keys are generating the list of files, and then putting the new names next to the old ones. It is a lot easier to manipulate in tables, and I tried to include the "hints" (^t, ^p esp.) that might not be common "tip of the fingers."

John

Subject: RE: FILE EDITING HELP
From: GUEST,Gene
Date: 10 May 03 - 11:39 AM

I posted the request rather hurridly, so will explain in more
detail...

SUBJECT FILES IN QUESTION ARE NOT .DOC or .TXT files

but MUSIC FILES ON DATA CDs WITH HUNDREDS OF MP3 files on them...

some .MP3s are NUMBERED and some are not...
so the numbered files are helter skelter and I
wish to put them all in ALPHABETICAL ORDER

Exanoke if songs on DATA CDS:

01 - COLD COLD HEART-(HANK WILLIAMS).mp3
06 - COLD COLD HEART-(RAY PRICE).mp3
09 - COLD COLD HEART-(TONY BENNETT).mp3
101 - COLD COLD HEART-(CARL SMITH).mp3
201 - COLD COLD HEART-(MOE BANDY).mp3
301 - COLD COLD HEART-(JACK GREENE).mp3
401 - COLD COLD HEART-(HANK WILLIAMS, JR).mp3
501 - COLD COLD HEART-(TOM JONES).mp3
COLD, COLD HEART-(GEORGE JONES).mp3
COLD, COLD HEART-(KITTY WELLS).mp3

Desired order:

COLD COLD HEART-(CARL SMITH).mp3
COLD, COLD HEART-(GEORGE JONES).mp3
COLD COLD HEART-(HANK WILLIAMS).mp3
COLD COLD HEART-(HANK WILLIAMS, JR).mp3
COLD COLD HEART-(JACK GREENE).mp3
COLD, COLD HEART-(KITTY WELLS).mp3
COLD COLD HEART-(MOE BANDY).mp3
COLD COLD HEART-(RAY PRICE).mp3
COLD COLD HEART-(TOM JONES).mp3
COLD COLD HEART-(TONY BENNETT).mp3

Object is to list song titles by different artists.

songs are from CASSETTES, 8-TRACKS, REEL-TO-REEL,
CDS, Radio Programs, TV Programs, Records..etc..
and manually deleting the PREFIXs one file at a time
would take too much time...

Too Soon We Are Old, Too Late We Are Smart!

Subject: RE: FILE EDITING HELP
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 10 May 03 - 11:59 AM

Instructions above tell how to "bulk-delete" the prefixes.

Once renamed and in a folder, clicking on the bar at the top of the filename column in Win Explorer will list them in the order you've indicated, or click again to list in reverse order.

It doesn't matter what kind of files they are, since the only thing you're doing is renaming the file - as long as you don't change the file extension.

If you just want to list them in order, take the newfilename column from the bat file above, and use "Table - Sort" in Word.

???

John

Subject: RE: FILE EDITING HELP
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 10 May 03 - 12:12 PM

If have a list with all the prefixes, and all you want is a list without the number prefixes you can open the list in Word and use "Table - Sort" to put the tune names in order. If you sort by paragraphs, all the ones with numbers at the front will be somewhere together, or in a few clumps.

Select (highlight) the ones that have prefixes and Use the Word "Edit - Replace" to delete the prefixes, and the whole list again.

As an alternative, you could use the "Edit - Replace" to to put a tab immediately after the prefixes and a tab at the beginning of each line that doesn't have a prefix, so that all the song names are in the "second column" and then use Table - Sort but sort on "field 2". The Table - Sort function works for columns separated by tabs (or whatever separator you choose) without the necessity of putting the list into a table.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: File Editing Help
From: Bill D
Date: 10 May 03 - 01:13 PM

would this help? It is free and says it will do the sort of thing you are trying...

http://www.1-4a.com/rename/rename-features.htm

Subject: RE: Tech: File Editing Help
From: Bill D
Date: 10 May 03 - 01:15 PM

hey...just looked further...it says:

"Often needed functions, especially for music files (optional)

Delete beginning number, if filename starts with a number.
"12- Michael Jackson - Thriller.mp3" => "Michael Jackson - Thriller.mp3" (typical when grabbing or converting)
Replace underscore "_" if possible: "don_t" => "don't", "i_m" => "i'm" etc.
Replace underscore "_" to space between letters: "Michael_Jackson" => "Michael Jackson". Typical when downloading files from the internet.
Delete unnecessary space: "He & You" => "He&You", "( Remix )" => "(Remix)" etc
Typical song renamings: "Featuring" => "~", etc
Delete space at the beginning and at the end. Kill double space."

Subject: RE: Tech: File Editing Help
From: GUEST,GENE RE: BILL D
Date: 10 May 03 - 06:27 PM

THANKS A HEAP BILL....WORKS TERRRRIIIFFFFIIICCC
deleted the [## - ] off of TEST BLOCK OF 100 files
before i got my finger off of the enter key...FAAASSST....

http://www.1-4a.com/rename/rename-features.htm

Subject: RE: Tech: File Editing Help
From: Bill D
Date: 10 May 03 - 09:40 PM

*big smile*...great!...I just got my own copy..look like it might be a useful thing to have!

Subject: RE: Tech: File Editing Help
From: Gene
Date: 13 May 03 - 12:52 AM

Another useful feature of above mentioned program.

It converts [UPPER CASE] to [lower case]

and can also do English Style [my favorite]

converts:

NOW IS THE HOUR.MP3 or
Now is the hour.mp3

to:

Now Is The Hour.Mp3

Subject: RE: Tech: File Editing Help
From: Bill D
Date: 13 May 03 - 04:19 PM

oh, that is great, Gene...I had not seen a program that would convert to English style before...makes sense, but the guy that wrote this program did some THINKING about what people really need.

Subject: RE: Tech: File Editing Help
From: Mark Clark
Date: 13 May 03 - 04:35 PM

Bill, that's a great find. I'll have to remember that one.

I was going to suggest searching for a copy of the UNIX sed utility compiled to run under Windows so mass edits could be performed using regular expressions. It would have been a very fast way to edit the file created by JohnInKansas' DIR step. Of course learning regular expressions might take a long time for the uninitiated.

I use Cygwin over Windows XP Pro so I always have UNIX at my fingertips.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Tech: File Editing Help
From: Bill D
Date: 13 May 03 - 05:07 PM

" Of course learning regular expressions might take a long time....."

yup!...my wife did DOS for years...she can almost think in it...but I never got the hang of command-line expressions and the like. I think it's a matter of wiring.....but I can look at a request like Gene's and create the search parameters necessary to FIND a piece of data or a program, and I can make programs work, though I have NO idea how they are constructed. (It's like being able to drive almost any vehicle, while barely understanding how to change the oil! *grin*...we all have our little skills)