How to end powershell script after the last file in dir

Question

Powershell script runs to add letter M in front of all file names. Then it continues to loop after the last file is modified and adds more MMMMs in front of the file name, in a loop. I need it to stop after the first run through all files in Directory.

I tried these three versions. The first with the space in front of M renames all files once but keeps the extra space in front of the name, if I can get rid of the space, it would be what I need:

DIR | Rename-Item -NewName {" M" + $_.BaseName + $_.Extension}

This version does not have the extra space in front of the M, but keeps adding MMMMs as long as the file name permits more characters.

DIR | Rename-Item -NewName {"M" + $_.BaseName + $_.Extension}

I also tried putting the letter as a parameter and using Foreach and got the same results as with just letter M in the first two versions:

$AL = "M"
Foreach-Object {
    DIR | Rename-Item -NewName {$AL + $_.BaseName + $_.Extension}
}

I need the files renamed with an M in front of the name, once and without the extra space. Thank you.

So, you want to add M to the start of the file name unless M is already the first character? — Mathias R. Jessen
– Mathias R. Jessen, Commented Jul 5, 2019 at 15:29
Try: DIR | ForEach-Object {Rename-Item -NewName ('M' + $_.BaseName + $_.Extension)} — iRon
– iRon, Commented Jul 5, 2019 at 15:32
@iRon - Your suggestion didn't work for me; while I suspected that it would have the same problem as Erinda's original attempts, it didn't; instead, it simply stopped and prompted me for the mandatory parameter Path to Rename-Item. DIR | ForEach-Object {Rename-Item -Path $_ -NewName ('M' + $_.BaseName + $_.Extension)} does work, however. — Jeff Zeitlin
– Jeff Zeitlin, Commented Jul 5, 2019 at 17:11
@iRon - I should note, however, that in both the corrected version of your solution and in my solution, the expression $_.BaseName + $_.Extension can be replaced by $_.Name. — Jeff Zeitlin
– Jeff Zeitlin, Commented Jul 5, 2019 at 17:13

Jeff Zeitlin · Accepted Answer · 2019-07-05 15:28:48Z

2

$FileList = Get-ChildItem
$FileList | Rename-Item -NewName {"M" + $_.BaseName + $_.Extension}

Should do the trick. The difference between this and your original is that your original was getting a dynamic list of files; by storing the list of files in a variable, it becomes static, so that the already-renamed files aren't added to the list to be processed.

answered Jul 5, 2019 at 15:28

Jeff Zeitlin

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