Rename files: keep only first 5 characters

I have a folder with 250 pictures which I want to rename. The original names are "00XXX.[random numbers]" (with XXX from 001 to 250) and I would like them to simply be named "00XXX", deleting the remaining characters.

Is there an easy way of doing this in a for loop?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

[Voss]

You can use movefile() to rename files. Try something like this on a copy of your folder:

pn = 'path\to\your\directory\';
f = dir(fullfile(pn,'*.png')); % get info about all .png files in folder pn, for instance
for ii = 1:numel(f)
    [~,name,ext] = fileparts(f(ii).name);
    movefile(fullfile(pn,f(ii).name),fullfile(pn,[name(1:5) ext]));
end

[ABCDEFG HIJKLMN]

This worked perfectly, thank you for the help!

[Voss]

You're welcome! Glad it worked

Answer 2

[Jan]

Folder = 'C:\Your\Folder';
List   = dir(fullfile(Folder, '*.*'));
List([List.isdir]) = [];   % [EDITED] remove folders
for k = 1:numel(List)
    Name   = List(k).name;
    Source = fullfile(Folder, Name);
    Dest   = fullfile(Folder, strtok(Name, '.'));
    [Succ, Msg] = movefile(Source, Dest, 'f');
    if Succ == 0
        error(Msg);
    end
end

[ABCDEFG HIJKLMN]

Thank you for your answer. Unfortunetely, it doesn't seem to work. I get the following error: Cannot copy or move a file or directory onto itself.

[Jan]

Then some of the files in this folder do not match the naming scheme "00XXX.[random numbers]". Maybe "." and ".." are the problem. I've updated the code, but if the other answer is working, stay at it.