Rename A File Using DOS Command

Introduction

We can use FileInfo.MoveTo method to rename a file in C#. The following code snippet renames a source file into a new file by using the MoveTo method.

using System;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        // Source file to be renamed
        string sourceFile = @"C:\Temp\MaheshChand.jpg";
        // Create a FileInfo
        System.IO.FileInfo fi = new System.IO.FileInfo(sourceFile 
        // Check if the file exists
        if (fi.Exists)
        {
            // Move the file with a new name, hence renamed.
            fi.MoveTo(@"C:\Temp\Mahesh.jpg");
            Console.WriteLine("File Renamed.");
        }
    }
}

Moving Files Application

The following article is an application that uses UI to bulk move files.

This helps us to learn how to use console commands in C# and the basics of background workers. Some of us may spend a lot of time renaming files. This application allows us to rename multiple files at a time.

Background

I must rename many documents in my office. For renaming, it may take too much time to do it. Or do I need to depend upon another third-party application? So I decided to create my own application.

Let me explain my application in a step-by-step manner.

Step 1. I have created an empty form. In the form, I have placed 2 Command buttons, a Background Worker, a FolderBrowserDialog, and a GridView, as shown below.

Step 2. Create an Excel file that can have an old file name and a new file name, then import the Excel file into the GridView.

Step 3. Call the folderbrowserdialog to choose the file to be renamed.

Step 4. Then, I entered the file rename code in a renamer method as below.

int datas = dataGridView1.Rows.Count;

for (int i = 0; i <= datas - 1; i++)
{
    String oldName, newName;
    oldName = dataGridView1.Rows[i].Cells[0].Value.ToString();
    newName = dataGridView1.Rows[i].Cells[1].Value.ToString();
    System.Diagnostics.Process process = new System.Diagnostics.Process();
    System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo();
    startInfo.WindowStyle = System.Diagnostics.ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
    startInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";
    startInfo.WorkingDirectory = @"" + location + "";
    startInfo.Arguments = "/k Rename " + oldName + " " + newName;
    process.StartInfo = startInfo;
    process.Start();
}

First, I counted the number of rows available in Excel and then assigned that value to an integer.

// Count the number of rows in the dataGridView
int datas = dataGridView1.Rows.Count;

I have used a loop to execute depending on the number of rows available in the GridView. This helps us to execute all the values available in the GridView.

for (int i = 0; i <= datas - 1; i++)

Then, I have taken the old filename and the new filename from the GridView rows.

string oldName, newName;
oldName = dataGridView1.Rows[i].Cells[0].Value.ToString();
newName = dataGridView1.Rows[i].Cells[1].Value.ToString();

Then, I created an object for the process and startinfo.

System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo();
System.Diagnostics.Process process = new System.Diagnostics.Process();

Open the command prompt using the following code.

startInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";

Set the working directory.

startInfo.WorkingDirectory = @"" + location + "";

Send the Argument to rename the file using the following line.

startInfo.Arguments = "/k Rename " + oldName + " " + newName;

In this article and application, we learned how to move files from a folder.