how to remove suffix in lots of folder names

I have lots of folders with name

a_local

b_local

c_local

How to change or remove all the _local to make the folder name

a

b

c

Answer 1

[Hari]

Hi Vincent,

I understand that you want to rename multiple folders by removing the "_local" suffix from each folder's name.

I assume you have access to the directory containing these folders and that you want to perform this operation programmatically using MATLAB.

• List All Folders: Use the dir function to list all items in the directory. Filter out files and keep only directories that have the "_local" suffix.
• Loop Through Each Folder: Iterate over each folder that needs renaming. Extract the base name by removing the "_local" suffix.
• Rename Folders: Use the movefile function to rename the folders. This function can change folder names by moving them to a new name.
• Error Handling: Include error handling to manage potential issues, such as name conflicts or permission errors.
• Verify Changes: After renaming, you might want to verify that all folders have been renamed correctly by listing the directory contents again.

Please find the complete code for the same:

% Get list of all items in the current directory
items = dir();

% Filter out folders that end with '_local'
folders = items([items.isdir] & endsWith({items.name}, '_local'));

% Loop through each folder
for i = 1:length(folders)
    oldName = folders(i).name;
    % Remove '_local' suffix
    newName = extractBefore(oldName, '_local');
    
    try
        % Rename the folder
        movefile(oldName, newName);
    catch ME
        fprintf('Error renaming folder %s: %s\n', oldName, ME.message);
    end
end

% Verify changes
updatedItems = dir();
disp({updatedItems.name});

References:

• Refer to the documentation of "dir" for listing directory contents: https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/dir.html
• Refer to the documentation of "movefile" for renaming files and directories: https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/movefile.html
• Refer to the documentation of "endsWith" for checking string suffixes: https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/endswith.html

Hope this helps!

[Stephen23]

Using DIR more effectively, to reduce the possible number of items returned:

P = 'absolute or relative path to where the folders are';
S = dir(fullfile(P,'*_local'));
S(~[S.isdir]) = [];
for k = 1:numel(S)
    old = S(k).name;
    new = strrep(old,'_local','');
    [status,msg] = movefile(...
        fullfile(S(k).folder,old),...
        fullfile(S(k).folder,new));
    if ~status
        fprintf('%s\n',msg)
    end
end