How to Easily Rename Specific Patterns in Multiple File Names with R

Discover how to rename multiple files in R by changing a specific pattern in their names. Follow our detailed guide to streamline your file management process!
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This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/63791821/ asked by the user 'Martin' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/14240581/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/63794314/ provided by the user 'Darren Tsai' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/10068985/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

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Introduction

Renaming files according to specific patterns can be a daunting task, especially when you're working with a large number of them. If you're new to R and looking for an efficient way to rename a series of files, you're in the right place! In this post, we will guide you through the process of renaming multiple files in R using regular expressions.

Specifically, we'll look at how to change the year in the file names from a series of years (2003-2019) to the previous year (2002-2018).

Problem Statement

Consider a series of files like these:

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You want to rename the pattern "A2003" to "A2002", "A2004" to "A2003", and so forth, up to "A2019" being changed to "A2018". This process might seem complicated at first, but with R and the right functions, we can achieve this effortlessly.

Solution Overview

We'll utilize the stringr package in R, which provides great functionality for working with strings and regular expressions. The main function we'll employ is str_replace(), which allows for complex replacements using a custom function.

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Install and Load Required Packages

If you haven't already installed the stringr package, you can do so using the following command:

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Next, load the stringr library in your R environment.

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2. Prepare Your Data

Before performing the renaming, let's create a vector containing the file names you want to change:

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3. Renaming the Files

Now we can utilize the str_replace() function to rename the pattern. Here is the implementation:

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Explanation of the Code

(?<=A)\d{4}: This regex pattern is looking for a digit pattern of exactly four digits that follows the letter "A".

function(x) as.numeric(x) - 1: This function takes each match, converts it to a numeric value, and subtracts 1.

4. Verify the Changes

After running the renaming command, you can view the newly renamed vector:

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Output:

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Now you can see that the years have been successfully adjusted!

Conclusion

Renaming files in R by changing specific patterns is a powerful tool, especially for data management tasks. Using the str_replace() function from the stringr package makes this process not only efficient but also straightforward.

Whether you're managing data for research, analysis, or any other purpose, this method can save you a significant amount of time. Happy renaming!