Renaming the folders by removing a specific string prefix to their names using for loop in cmd

Question

I have 16 folders like:

Sample-2.1-1 Sample-2.2-1 Sample-2.3-1 ..... Sample-2.16-1

Those are inside a folder SVN for example

D:\SVN\Sample-2.1-1 D:\SVN\Sample-2.2-1 D:\SVN\Sample-2.3-1 ..... D:\SVN\Sample-2.16-1

Now I want to rename all these 16 folders by removing Sample- in their names such as:

2.1-1 2.2-1 2.3-1 ..... 2.16-1

How could I do it using for command inside cmd.

Please try something and let us know what happens. We aren't here to write the code for you. Consider looking up for /f command using delims=-. — avery_larry
– avery_larry, Commented Nov 13, 2019 at 18:53
I tried something like set dirname="D:\SVN" && for /d "tokens=1,2 delims=- "%%G in ('dir /b %dirname%') do rename %dirname%\%%G-%%H %%H where %%G is the string before delimiter and %%H is string after delimiter. But it gives me error like " in was unexpected at this time." . — jks
– jks, Commented Nov 13, 2019 at 21:25
You need for /f, not for /d. Also put a space between the double quote and %%G. — avery_larry
– avery_larry, Commented Nov 13, 2019 at 21:39
with command set dirname=D:\SVN && for /f "tokens=1,2 delims=-" %G in (' dir /b %dirname%') do rename %dirname%\%G-%H-1 %H-1 i get rename D:\SVN \Sample-2.2-1 2.2-1 on the cmd. It means i get a space between rename D:\SVN and \Sample-2.2-1 instead of rename D:\SVN \Sample-2.2-1 2.2-1 i get rename D:\SVN \Sample-2.2-1 2.2-1. If cmd is able to get command without space everything would be fine i guess — jks
– jks, Commented Nov 13, 2019 at 22:08

dbenham · Accepted Answer · 2019-11-15 13:27:41Z

pushd "d:\svn" for /f "tokens=1*" %%A in ('dir /b /ad sample-*') do ren "%%A-%%B" "%%B" popd

Or, in the off chance that you have a folder name like sample--xxxx, then

pushd "d:\svn" for /d %%F in (sample-*) do for /f "tokens=1*" %%A in ("%%F") do ren "%%F" "%%B" popd

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