Shell – Parsing and reformatting date string using PowerShell

This script should do the job:

dir | %{ 
    $id = $_.Name.SubString(0,8); 
    if(-not (Test-Path $id)) {mkdir $id}; 
    mv $_ "$id\$_";}

Explanation:

foreach file in the directory (% is an alias for foreach):

• Get the id from the first 9 characters. Note that the $_ variable is an automatic variable populated by powershell that represents the current file. The Name property of the object returns a .NET String object which has a SubString member function that you can use to return the portion of the filename you are interested in.
• Check if the "id" directory already exists. If it doesn't, create it (mkdir is an alias for New-Item).
• Then move the file into the directory (mv is an alias for Move-Item). Note that when powershell sees a variable inside a double quoted string, it automatically expands its value into the resulting string.

Note that the example I provide assumes that you are running it from the directory where your files are.

Appleoddity's referenced article covers what I am looking for. Thanks! https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4126603/powershell-or-batch-find-and-replace-characters