Rename TIF files in a folder

Hello. I have 21841 TIFF images in a folder with names in the format Camera10001, Camera10002,....Camera121841. I want to rename these files as:

Camera10001 to Camera0001, .... Camera121841 to Camera21841.

I used "renamer" software but it gives error from file number 9999 i.e., Camera19999 and so on. I am trying to do the same in MATLAB but the error is still persistent.

% Specify the input and output directories
input_directory = 'D:\Images\Test\Camera_1';
output_directory = 'D:\Images\Test\Camera_1';

% Ensure the output directory exists
if ~exist(output_directory, 'dir')
    mkdir(output_directory);
end

Answer 1

[charan]

Hello Tomer,

You can extract the file names using "dir" function. Then by looping through each file use regex expressions to generate the new name of the file. Then use the "movefile" function to rename the files.

files = dir('D:\Images\Test\Camera_1'); % for getting list of files 
[~,filename,ext]=fileparts(files.name(idx)) % for getting name of eaxh file. Index over the range of 1:length(files)

Here is an example code

filename='Camera123001'; %example file name
ext='.tif';
fileNum=str2double(regexp(filename, '\d+', 'match'))

fileNum = 123001

newfilename=sprintf('Camera%04d%s', fileNum - 100000)

newfilename = 'Camera23001'

oldname= strcat(filename,ext)  

oldname = 'Camera123001.tif'

rename = strcat(newfilename,ext)  

rename = 'Camera23001.tif'

movefile(oldname,rename);

[Tomer]

Hi, thanks. I get the error: Unrecognized function or variable 'idx'.

[Image Analyst]

Try this:

mainFolder = 'D:\Images\Test\Camera_1';
filePattern = fullfile(mainFolder, '*.*');
files = dir(filePattern); % for getting list of files 
for k = 1 : numel(files)
    fullFileName = fullfile(files.folder(k), files.name(k));
    [folder, baseFileName, ext] = fileparts(fullFileName) % for getting name of each file.
    fprintf('Processing %s.\n'. fullFileName);
end

[charan]

Hey Tomer,

I was just giving you the method to follow to get the required result. Define a "for" loop that iterates over the files in the directory. Use the index of that loop in place of "idx". The folllowing code might help you:

mainFolder = 'D:\Images\Test\Camera_1';
filePattern = fullfile(mainFolder, '*.*');
files = dir(filePattern); % for getting list of files 
for idx = 1 : length(files)
    fullFileName = fullfile(files.folder(idx), files.name(idx));
    [~,filename,ext]=fileparts(fullFileName) % for getting name of each file.
    fileNum=str2double(regexp(filename, '\d+', 'match'))
    newfilename=sprintf('Camera%04d%s', fileNum - 100000)
    oldname= strcat(filename,ext)  
    rename = strcat(newfilename,ext)  
    movefile(oldname,rename); 
end

[Tomer]

Thank you @sai charan sampara. I get this eror when I run thsi code: Intermediate dot '.' indexing produced a comma-separated list with 21843 values, but it must produce a single value when followed by subsequent indexing operations.

[Walter Roberson]

mainFolder = 'D:\Images\Test\Camera_1';
filePattern = fullfile(mainFolder, '*.*');
files = dir(filePattern); % for getting list of files 
for idx = 1 : length(files)
    fullFileName = fullfile(files(idx).folder, files(idx).name);
    [~,filename,ext]=fileparts(fullFileName) % for getting name of each file.
    fileNum=str2double(regexp(filename, '\d+', 'match'))
    newfilename=sprintf('Camera%04d%s', fileNum - 100000)
    oldname= strcat(filename,ext)  
    rename = strcat(newfilename,ext)  
    movefile(oldname,rename); 
end

[Tomer]

Thanks @Walter Roberson. I get this error, after which the code crashes:

ext = '.'

fileNum = []

newfilename = 'Camera0000'

oldname = '.'

rename = 'Camera0000.'

Error using movefile

The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.

Answer 2

[Govind KM]

Hi Tomer,

It looks like you want to rename these TIFF files to remove the ‘1’ after the starting string of ‘Camera’ for each file. You can do this using the ‘movefile’ function in MATLAB.

% Define the folder where the TIFF images are located
folderPath = 'D:\Images\Test\Camera_1';

% Get a list of all TIFF files in the folder
fileList = dir(fullfile(folderPath, 'Camera1*.tiff'));

% Loop through each file and rename it
for k = 1:length(fileList)
    % Get the old file name
    oldFileName = fileList(k).name;
    newFileName = replace(oldFileName,'Camera1','Camera');
    
    % Get the full file paths
    oldFilePath = fullfile(folderPath, oldFileName);
    newFilePath = fullfile(folderPath, newFileName);
    
    % Rename the file
    movefile(oldFilePath, newFilePath);
end

You can refer to the documentation of the ‘movefile’ function below:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/movefile.html

[Tomer]

Hi, thank you. Unfortunately, this did not work.

[Image Analyst]

"does not work" is not very helpful to us in figuring out what went wrong. Can you elaborate?

Add this to the code just before movefile() and tell us what you see

fprintf('Renaming "%s" to "%s".\n', oldFilePath, newFilePath);

Are you sure you're putting in the right extension? Maybe you have *.tif instead of *.tiff like @Gkm4430 had. How many files did it find? Put in this code to find out:

% Get a list of all TIFF or TIF files in the folder.
fileList = dir(fullfile(folderPath, 'Camera1*.tif*')); % Find *.tiff OR *.tif files.
fprintf('Found %d tif files in "%s".\n', numel(fileList), folderPath);

[Govind KM]

@Tomer could you share the error, or what went wrong?

[Walter Roberson]

maybe

fileList = dir(fullfile(folderPath, 'Camera1*.tif'));   %instead of .tiff

[Tomer]

Thank you all for your kind comments. I used this approach with the corrections suggested, the error is that: Found 12953 tif files after renaming. Initially in the foldere there were 21841 TIf files but afterwards, I see only 12953 images. I made some modifications and created lof files.

Old: D:\Binarized_Images\Test\Camera_1\Camera111112.tif -> New: D:\Binarized_Images\Test\Camera_1\Camera11112.tif Status: Skipped (file exists)

Old: D:\Binarized_Images\Test\Camera_1\Camera111113.tif -> New: D:\Binarized_Images\Test\Camera_1\Camera11113.tif Status: Skipped (file exists)

Old: D:\Binarized_Images\Test\Camera_1\Camera111114.tif -> New: D:\Binarized_Images\Test\Camera_1\Camera11114.tif Status: Skipped (file exists)

Some files are skipped, and I am unable to fix it.

close all; clear all; clc


% Define the folder where the TIFF images are located
folderPath = 'D:\Binarized_Images\Test\Camera_1';

% Get a list of all TIFF files in the folder
fileList = dir(fullfile(folderPath, 'Camera1*.tif'));
fprintf('Found %d tif files in "%s".\n', numel(fileList), folderPath);

% Initialize the log for renamed files and skipped files
fileRenamingLog = cell(length(fileList), 3);
skippedFiles = {};

% Loop through each file and rename it
for k = 1:length(fileList)
    % Get the old file name
    oldFileName = fileList(k).name;
    
    % Generate the new file name by replacing 'Camera1' with 'Camera'
    newFileName = ['Camera', oldFileName(8:end)]; % Remove the '1' after 'Camera'
    
    % Get the full file paths
    oldFilePath = fullfile(folderPath, oldFileName);
    newFilePath = fullfile(folderPath, newFileName);
    
    % Store old and new file names in the log
    fileRenamingLog{k, 1} = oldFilePath;
    fileRenamingLog{k, 2} = newFilePath;
    
    % Check if new file path already exists (to avoid overwriting)
    if exist(newFilePath, 'file') == 2
        fileRenamingLog{k, 3} = 'Skipped (file exists)';
        skippedFiles{end+1} = oldFilePath; %#ok<AGROW>
        fprintf('Skipped "%s" because "%s" already exists.\n', oldFilePath, newFilePath);
    else
        fileRenamingLog{k, 3} = 'Renamed';
        % Rename the file
        movefile(oldFilePath, newFilePath);
        fprintf('Renamed "%s" to "%s".\n', oldFilePath, newFilePath);
    end
end

% Check the number of files after renaming
newFileList = dir(fullfile(folderPath, 'Camera*.tif'));
fprintf('Found %d tif files after renaming.\n', numel(newFileList));

% Save the renaming log to a text file for debugging
logFilePath = fullfile(folderPath, 'file_renaming_log.txt');
fid = fopen(logFilePath, 'w');
for k = 1:length(fileRenamingLog)
    fprintf(fid, 'Old: %s -> New: %s Status: %s\n', fileRenamingLog{k, 1}, fileRenamingLog{k, 2}, fileRenamingLog{k, 3});
end
fclose(fid);

% Save skipped files log
skippedLogFilePath = fullfile(folderPath, 'skipped_files_log.txt');
fid = fopen(skippedLogFilePath, 'w');
for k = 1:length(skippedFiles)
    fprintf(fid, 'Skipped: %s\n', skippedFiles{k});
end
fclose(fid);

fprintf('Renaming complete. Log saved to %s\n', logFilePath);
fprintf('Skipped files log saved to %s\n', skippedLogFilePath);

[Image Analyst]

What was the name of one it skipped?

Try moving them to a different output folder instead of renaming in place.

One potential problem about running the code over and over again in the same folder is that if the number begins with Camera11*** then getting rid of the first 1 will leave you with a file that still begins with Camera1 and it will be renamed again if you run the code again.

Maybe instead of the old

if exist(newFilePath, 'file') == 2

try

if isfile(newFilePath)