Having the ability to perform an action on every single file in a folder and all subsequent subfolders is a very powerful tool. This means that someone could potentially perform an action on every single file on an entire hard drive volume with only a few lines of code.
The purpose of this article is to provide a framework for folder recursion using AutoIt. I will also provide you with an example script that you can download and run to see how folder recursion works.
The File FileLister.au3
Error: Could not open FileLister.au3
This is the script that we are going to be looking at. It is a relatively basic script but it is very effective at what it does.
This script’s job is to scan all of the files and folders in a specified directory, display them in a tooltip, log each of the file names in a text file, and count the number of files that exist.
There are three main parts to this script. Each with a specific purpose.
Main Program
This is the overall controlling program. This portion is relatively short. It is only four lines:
Dim $FolderName = "C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32"
Dim $FileCount = 0
ScanFolder($FolderName)
MsgBox(0,"Done","Folder Scan Complete. Scanned " & $FileCount & " Files")
The first two lines tells us the folder to scan and initializes the file count. The third line starts the scanning process and the forth line tells the user that the scan has completed and how many files were in the scanned folder.
ScanFolder
This function is the core of the program. It is important that this is a function because we need to recursively call this function.
When the ScanFolder function looks at the contents of a folder, it determines whether each item is a folder or not. If it is not a folder, it performs the specified function. If it is a folder, it runs another copy of the ScanFolder function but with the new folder name. This is accomplished by the following code:
If StringInStr($FileAttributes,"D") Then
ScanFolder($FullFilePath)
Else
LogFile($FullFilePath)
EndIf
LogFile
This is the function that is called if the ScanFolder function determines that the item that it has found is a file. This function can be modified to do all types of things and I encourage you to experiment with different things that you could do with the file. Some ideas are:
- record file size
- set file attributes
- rename files
- MD5 on files
- catalog files
Conclusion
That’s all there is to it. It is actually a relatively simple process. I would be very interested to hear how you modified this script and made it perform various functions. Feel free to leave your creation ideas and code in the comments section.
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January 30th, 2007 at 1:09 am
Here’s how I used and modified your script:
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=89021
It goes through a folder tree and modifies INF files and puts them in an output folder tree.
Thanks for the sharing your code!
March 28th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
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July 26th, 2007 at 10:56 am
My employer wants me to compress 14000 pdf files and has only shown me how to do it one at a time with Adobe Acrobat. I sought help from other software, but could find none. So I have recently turned to AutoIt for assistance. How can someone modify your code so as to compress every pdf file inside a company directory, hidden away in thousands of subfolders?
July 26th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
My job as an intern is to compress 14000 pdf files. I have been shown how to do so only one at a time, which I refuse to do. I searched on-line for software to help me in my task, but then at last I heard of AutoIt. However, I am still learning so can you send me a version of your script with more detailed comments so that I may understand it? Or do you have any suggestions for altering your script so that it may complete my task? All the files are in a company directory, hidden away in thousands of subfiles. I will also need to select certain files of a certain size, that were modified before a certain date, and that have not been compressed before.
August 13th, 2007 at 9:08 am
I basically used it to move all files that meet a certain search string criteria to another folder. Problem I had was having it run for subsequent folders. Your script made that happen. Thank you!!!
Here’s my code.
;Recursive File Lister
Dim $FolderName = ‘M:\archive\target’
Dim $FileCount = 0
Dim $FileDelete = 0
Dim $FileRename = 0
ScanFolder($FolderName)
MsgBox(0,’Done’,'File Move Completed.’ & @TAB & ‘Moved ‘ & $FileRename & ‘ Files’)
Func ScanFolder($SourceFolder)
Local $Search
Local $File
Local $FileAttributes
Local $FullFilePath
$Search = FileFindFirstFile($SourceFolder & ‘\*.*’)
While 1
If $Search = -1 Then
ExitLoop
EndIf
$File = FileFindNextFile($Search)
If @error Then ExitLoop
$FullFilePath = $SourceFolder & ‘\’ & $File
$FileAttributes = FileGetAttrib($FullFilePath)
If StringInStr($FileAttributes,’D') Then
ScanFolder($FullFilePath)
Else
HandleFile($FullFilePath)
EndIf
WEnd
FileClose($Search)
EndFunc
Func HandleFile($FileName)
Local $NewFile
Local $Date
If StringRegExp($FileName, ‘[.]…_[(][0-9]{4}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2}_[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2}_DEL_T’,0) Then
$Date = FileGetTime($FileName, 1, 1)
$NewFile = StringReplace($FileName, StringRight($FileName,32), ”, 0, 2)
$NewFile = StringReplace($NewFile, ‘ [#]’, ”, 0, 2)
$NewFile = StringReplace($NewFile, ‘ [-]’, ”, 0, 2)
$NewFile = StringReplace($NewFile, ‘ [#][-]’, ”, 0, 2)
$NewFile = StringReplace($NewFile, $FolderName, ‘M:\My Music’, 0, 2)
FileWriteLine(@ScriptDir & ‘\FileMove.txt’,$NewFile)
FileMove($FileName, $NewFile, 9)
If @error Then FileWriteLine(@ScriptDir & ‘\FileMove.txt’, @error)
FileSetTime($NewFile, $Date, 1)
$FileRename += 1
ToolTip($FileName & @CRLF & $NewFile,0,0,’Moving Files’)
EndIf
EndFunc
April 4th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Thanks so much. This script comes in handy all the time. I use it for backing up files, and all kinds of text processing.
May 27th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Your script is great and i simply added some tags and an if condition to dump into a playlist for automating a limited application. Thanks.