How do I search multiple files with a '-' after 11 characters from the right side of every file?

[unrealdanio]

Hi all,

As I'm new here, I'm not an average user of TC, but I've seen how powerful it is. I've successfully managed to do a bulk rename process of some files, but now here's where I really don't know where to start off. I'm guessing the topic sounds awful in trying to explain what I need help with, but to put it into simplification:

I need to bulk select files that contain 11 chars and end with a '-', all from the right side of the filename. e.g.:

Really Cool Artist - Really Cool Song-cgh5etyctVE.mp3.mp3
Another Artist - Another Song-XXP-ew2q1FI.mp3
Some Artist - Some Song-_m5u4WXRl14.mp3

The only special chars in these sequences are '-' and '_', the rest are low and up case letters and numbers. I've tried combining some stuff that I've read from the manual and some other topics from this forum and I still can't manage to get that selection done.

I'd be more than happy for any advice for the latter. I'm currently segregating my music library and it's a mess having these garbage texts hanging out of every filename I have on there.

[gdpr deleted 6]

Based on your examples, what you seem to actually look for is a "-" with another 11 characters before a dot in the file name.

You can simply use a file pattern like

Code: Select all

*-???????????.*

as selection pattern. Pay attention to use the correct amount of "?"



Depending on what you actually want to do with the files or if your search pattern becomes more complex, you could also use "Find files" function (Alt+F7) or Mutli-Rename-Tool (Ctrl+M) with a regular expression like this:

Code: Select all

-[^.]{11}\.

Explanation:

Code: Select all

-           The "-" character
[^.]{11}    [^.] means any character except a dot. "{11}" means 11 times. Thus, this matches a sequence of 11 characters that doesn't contain a dot.
\.          Literally the dot character "."

[unrealdanio]

Based on your examples, what you seem to actually look for is a "-" with another 11 characters before a dot in the file name.

You can simply use a file pattern like

Code: Select all

*-???????????.*

as selection pattern. Pay attention to use the correct amount of "?"



Depending on what you actually want to do with the files or if your search pattern becomes more complex, you could also use "Find files" function (Alt+F7) or Mutli-Rename-Tool (Ctrl+M) with a regular expression like this:

Code: Select all

-[^.]{11}\.

Explanation:

Code: Select all

-           The "-" character
[^.]{11}    [^.] means any character except a dot. "{11}" means 11 times. Thus, this matches a sequence of 11 characters that doesn't contain a dot.
\.          Literally the dot character "."

Thanks a bunch elgonzo! The RegEx expression helped a lot, I've tried the question marks for the selection but no luck with that, but from here I've managed to make another window for searched files under the matched criteria, and then I used the multi-rename tool. I guess RegEx does come in handy. I'll have to put some more time into that.