I wanted to sort files and create dynamic folder according the filename

Build Activities
#1

I am new to Uipath.
I have many files of different extensions in a folder. I wanted to sort the files according to the date(ddmmyyyy) which the file names have and create a dynamic folder according to the year(yyyy) which the files name has and move the file to the particular folder.
If the file name has no date I wanted to create a dynamic folder with the current date and move that file to the respective folder.

Below are the example of file names:

  1. abc_report_10102018
  2. xyz_report_04052019
  3. Report
#2

Hi Kinjal,

You have to perform following steps to achieve this.

1-Read the parent directory where all files are present. It will return collection.
2-use for each loop for the collection then inside loop get file name as string.
3-Now create a string variable and get substring. like this str.Substring(str.Length -4)
It will give you year for example File= 1. abc_report_10102018 it will return 2018
4- Apply check if variable value that you have created at point no 3 is null or empty then that mean file doesn’t have date.
5- Use create folder activity to create folder.
6-Use move file activity to move the file to that specific folder.

Hope it will work

#3

Can you please show it in flow.

Thank you in advance.

#4

Here you go Sort Folders.zip (3.4 KB)

#6

The flow runs fine for all the files except .xlsx file
The problem I am facing is for the excel file the substring gives output the file as 018 instead of 2018.
Can you help me with this, please?

#7

Take @anupamck solution and create an IF in the process, so when the extension is “.xlsx” or has 4 characters, do file.Substring (file.Length -9, 4)

#8

Modified the workflow. Now it should handle files of any extension. Sort Folders_2.zip (5.5 KB)

#10

Thank you for the modified workflow. It works well for any extension.

#11

Hello I am still a bit confused, I am still a beginner myself, can I send you my workflow and just check it out for me please. I want to sort out annnual files, for instance, if the file is from the year 2019, then a 2019 document should be filed under a 2019 folder(that I would have to create within the workflow as well) I am not sure if I am making sense.

Thank you

#12

How does one find out if the file is from the year 2019? Using the name? Or using properties such as date created / modified?

#13

Hello I am not following your question?

#14

Could you give me examples of the files you want to sort out? Or describe the task you want to perform with examples?

#15

IMG_20201020_223006
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#16

My biggest challenge is with the matches activity, I am struggling with filtering the right format,thats step 5 from the screengrab

#17

1173ca45-9e75-41a6-9c52-2cd5a44a6395-original
1173ca45-9e75-41a6-9c52-2cd5a44a6395-original782×775 22.7 KB

from this screengrab, my for each activity won’t flow because I couldn’t configure the Regular expression inside the matches activity, I can’t filter the right format

#18

I wouldn’t solve this with Regex - the code turns really messy because the expression need to capture text after the second “_” and before the “.”. Also, some files need not be in this format.

The solution I have posted actually handles this task pretty well. Alternatively, you could use the following approach

  • Check if string has two “_” characters (else get year from current date)
  • Split string and check if text after second “_” has at least 8 characters (else get year from current date)
  • Get substring of the characters after the second “_” and check if it is a year (else get year from current date)

You see? This approach is quite messy too, but is still cleaner than the regex approach.

#19

Thank you, a little demonstration with a workflow if you may.
thank you

#20

https://forum.uipath.com/uploads/short-url/jcUJwl1lnYJJ0ozmftQ8DLNJBIC.zip

#21

Thank you very much for everything, have yourself a blessed day further