CODEWITHSUNDEEP
windowsbatch-filecmd
TheStrangeQuark
TheStrangeQuark

Reputation: 2405

Adding a textfile with a name to each directory

I'm having some trouble with trying to add a text file to each directory in this directory having a certain name. I have a directory called Daily Notes where I save my notes for the day and I have this further organized by week. So I have a bunch of directories in here such as 6.5.17-6.10.17 and in each of these I need a text file with the name format such as 6.7.17DailyNotes.txt. I know I can easily do this by hand each day, but I have some free time and am trying to learn how to program with cmd. I tried to just make a test text file with a for loop but it saved it to the directory containing the batch file. Here is my code right now:

@echo off
setlocal disabledelayedexpansion

set "folder=%~1"
if not defined folder set "folder=%cd%"

for /D %%a in ("%folder%\*") do (
    echo test > test.txt
)

endlocal

So, I want to go into each directory and make 5 text files, one for each day with the format month.day.yearDailyNotes.txt. I was thinking I could just make a variable from reading the directory name and count up in days from that for the text files. Any advice?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 47

Answers (3)

Stephan
Stephan

Reputation: 56238

Your comment

I know it would be very difficult to handle month changes in the middle of the week, I was thinking it will be acceptable to just handle that part manually, so have a file named something like 10.32.17DailyNotes.txt which I manually will change after

makes it much easier (Date/Time Math in Batch is possible, but ugly and involves a lot of code)

@echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
REM next two lines for simulating your environment:
set "folder=%~dp0"
md 6.5.17-6.10.17 6.11.17-6.16.17 2>nul

REM for every folder
for /d %%f in ("%folder%*.*.*-*.*.*") do (
  REM extract day, month and year [from first part of foldername]
  for /f "tokens=1-3 delims=.-" %%a in ("%%~nxf")do (
    REM calculate "end day" [may be greater than days in that month]
    set /a end=%%b+5
    REM for [start] to [end]
    for /l %%i in (%%b,1,!end!) do (
      REM create blank file
      break > "%%f\%%a.%%i.%%cDailyNotes.txt"
    )
  )
)

Upvotes: 1

Magoo
Magoo

Reputation: 80211

@echo off
setlocal disabledelayedexpansion

set "folder=%~1"
if not defined folder set "folder=%cd%"

for /D %%q in ("%folder%\*") do (
    echo test "%%q\%%~nxqDailyNotes.txt"
)

ENDLOCAL

Interesting exercise with a couple of twists.

my posted code will simply show 'test "fullfilename" '. Naturally, you could use copy nul "*fullfilename*"' to create an empty file (with>nulto suppress the creation-report) orecho.>"fullfilename"` to create a file containing just an empty line - or whatever.

The main magic is with the gymnastics in creating the filename. Since you are using for/d, the directoryname will appear in %%q. so the required filename is the name+extension part of that directoryname (you and I know it's actually not a filename but the outermost leafname of a directory tree - just don't tell cmd) so we use %%~nxq meaning the name and extension part of the "filename" in %%q (see for /?|more from the prompt for documentation). We then just tack the remainder of the required name on as a literal.

So - why the change to %%q?

Suppose we leave it as %%a. The filename would then be "%%~nxaDailyNotes.txt" and be interpreted as name,extension,attribute,drive of %%a since i is neither a modifier nor a participating metavariable. Changing the metavariable from %%a to %%q removes the misinterpretation.

Upvotes: 0

lit
lit

Reputation: 16266

Iterate over all of the subdirectories and create a test.txt file.

set "folder=%~1"
if not defined folder set "folder=%cd%"

FOR /F "usebackq tokens=*" %%a IN (`DIR /S /B /A:D "%folder%\*"`) DO (
    ECHO test > "%%~a\test.txt"
)

Upvotes: 0

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