I have plenty of folders that are named like this: This_is_the_name_of_the_fo lder I'd like to replace the underscores with spaces and have them as: This is the name of the folder Is there a way a command/bat file for my requirement? I use hyphens for related information, and underscores as I would a space. Underscores in URLs aren’t recognized by Google, a URL containing "my_page" will look like “mypage”. If the dates are always a fixed length (is January "01" or "1"?) The only thing the underscore does is make it easy to use at the command line. All posts copyright their original authors. cmd windows replace spaces with underscores (4) I'm trying to rename all the files inside a folder (all .exe files). ” / \ [ ] : ; | = , < ? I know what I want, I don't need to search for it. I use hyphens for related information, and underscores as I would a space. Our corporate policy is to avoid spaces in filenames. Date or date ran… If you ever need to put a file online or on an intranet, etc., spaces are pretty ugly, hard to type, and hard to read: flug's example of how to do it is precisely how I do it myself. There really is no benefit (sorting-wise, anyway) to using the underscore. The reason is that, for example, a folder named u_2 (after the band, of course) can also be parsed as an attempt to "underlay" a resource named "2" over the base image.. To be on the safe side, you should make sure you stick to at least one of the following principles: So my new file's name has all of my spaces replaced with underscores, but Skitch's space is honored: Growl_Notification_Rollup_-_IP_Address 2.png The drive I was transferring to allowed only ~32,000 subdirectories because it was formatted with ext3. Underscore in Canon Image File Names Blogging Add comments. Ask MetaFilter is a question and answer site that covers nearly any question on earth, where members help each other solve problems. For instance, if you have a file called "A picture taken in Winston-Salem, NC.jpg" and you want to convert the spaces to underscores, then you can preserve the hyphen in the name and retain its meaning. The short answer is, that's what Google expects: If you use an underscore '_' character, then Google will combine the two words on either side into one word. A best practice is to replace spaces in file names with an underline (_) or hyphen (-). However, if you still have old files on file, chances are there are underscores within the name. Is it Ok. ‘ { } ( ). It is much easier to visually see file names when using underscores. The mv command in the loop is a bit changed too. > & $ # ! 1. A safe solution to recursively replace spaces with underscores in file and directory names starting from the current directory. Whereas if there's a hyphen (or spaces) between the words in a name (snare-soft-01), I won't get the whole name, just a single word of it. Say we wanted to replace the space in those file names with an underscore so that the file names contain no spaces. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filename#Reserved_characters_and_words. The filenames will be printed with a nullbyte (-print0) as delimiter to also cope with special filenames. The question is whether he should use an underscore rather then an empty string between a date and someone's initials. Jun 11 2012 . It makes it a ton easier to read though, compared to not having it at all. Any comments would be highly appreciated. Underscores are okay. find will search for files with a space in the name. Don't use spaces. The Gala approaches! For example, In our diverse environment of computing systems, we have a lot of little quirks of what is and is not allowed between systems. The Tennessee State Archives documented an error because files with extremely long names could not be ingested when they tested Safety Deposit Box in 2011 (page 2. So, there are never folders renamed before all files and folder are rename inside of it. Reference company name(s) within file. Rule LLR #4 – Document Names – Use Underscores (_) Please refrain from putting dashes in document file name. Spaces cause problems for people who want to use the command line in advanced ways such as in for loops like this: for file in *.mp3 ; do mpg321 $file -w - | oggenc -o ${file%%.mp3}.ogg - ; done There are really only two non-alphanumeric characters that you should use in naming your files: dashes and underscores. Choose a format for naming your files and use it consistently. So it behooves us to use something other than a space in file and folder names. One day I noticed all the filenames on my Canon T2i started with an underscore replacing the ‘I’, so they started with ‘_MG_xxxx’. In Assets 2.2.2 you can't create folders that begin with an underscore. Both options contain a space. File names should only contain letters, numbers, underscores, or dashes. The short answer is, that's what Google expects: If you use an underscore '_' character, then Google will combine the two words on either side into one word. Keep your filenames to a reasonable length and be sure they are under 31 characters. When I saved a screenshot using a duplicate name, I choose to keep both the original and new images. In general, separate words with hyphens, not underscores. If you are sending a contract to a company make sure that your company and the other company are in the file name. Use Flash Or Silverlight to Insert Multimedia Elements, Not For All Content They are visible when an underlined hyperlink is rendered on the screen - underscores get covered by the underline. Scanned manuscript - saved as TIFF image files in archival disc. Appendix B of NARA Bulletin 2015-04 states that spaces aren’t allowed in filenames. please be aware that many people that use gui base file apps find underscores to be one of the most annoying things ever. Four-digit year. Using Outlook 2016 on Windows 10 every time I type an underscore when composing an email, or paste texts with underscores, Outlook converts it to a SPACE character. I haven't run into specific problems with spaces personally, but this is a case of good digital object hygiene. For example, if I have the following set up of file folders, starting from smallest to largest (arrow denotes “goes under”): Checks ->Chase->Checking Accounts->Accounting->CompanyA->List #X … This will also improve your search engine rankings . Example tree . Some crap like FILE~1.XLS. So … A world where people use hyphens & underscores to write file names is a world where user-experience thrives. Type in the name you want to use and press Enter. I want to replace all the spaces with underscores, e.g: "qwe qwe qwe asd.exe" to "qwe_qwe_qwe_asd.exe". A mystery solved. Or use dashes. there doesn't appear to be much value in the underscore. Why? I'd rather have 3 character filenames than underscores. You have to use the shortened version, which you won't know without using DIR command with whatever forgotten switch exposes them. We’d like to clarify the things that matter when making a choice – so you can avoid making a bad decision. Ask MetaFilter is where thousands of life's little questions are answered. If I type a file name with an underscore, it then shows up incorrectly in the email. Dashes are preferred for a couple of reasons. The sort -rz reverses the file order, so that the deepest files in a folder are the first to move and the folder itself will be the last one. You might consider including some of the following information in your file names, but you can include any information that will allow you to distinguish your files from one another. Filenames on Canon EOS cameras, like the T2i, 60D, 7D, etc all use the pattern IMG_xxxx.JPG or IMG_xxxx.CR2. Mar 15, 2011 11:12 AM in response to Ian R. Brown In response to Ian R. Brown. Some programming languages use spaces to signify the end of a character string, and many software applications don’t recognize file names that contain spaces. Exceptions for consistency. Avoid using spaces and underscores; use a hyphen instead. For example, if I have the following set up of file folders, starting from smallest to largest (arrow denotes “goes under”): Checks ->Chase->Checking Accounts->Accounting->CompanyA->List #X … That's some cohones, man, claiming your answer to be the best. File names should only contain letters, numbers, underscores, or dashes. Historically, I've used underscore, but I recently discovered that the correct character to substitute for space is the dash. It is much easier to visually see file names when using underscores. Use the underscore symbol (_) or dash (-) in between words to represent a space, or use CamelCase and omit spaces from your file names altogether. Another thing, when using the windows command line, filenames with space just don't work very well (at all). Researcher name/initials 4. Spaces cause problems for people who want to use the command line in advanced ways such as in for loops like this: for file in *.mp3 ; do mpg321 $file -w - | oggenc -o ${file%%.mp3}.ogg - ; done This is a small, tiny, miniscule thing, but … If you use an underscore character (_) at the beginning of a file name, the file will be a hidden file. Most operating systems are case sensitive; always use lowercase . Thx. I'll … Is there any best practice/guidance on where to store, in METS, metadata about digitisation/digital creation processes? Now I’m going to explain why this is the proper date formatting structure for file names. I need to do this using the command line. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filename#Reserved_characters_and_words. Unless you have muliple copies of files with the same name created on different dates. Choose a URL that describes the page and gives people a reason t… Do you have experience with working with spaces in file names that provides insight into whether they are problematic? The underscore is irrelevant; it's making sure your filenames have NO SPACES that will make them most broadly/easily usable (especially important if they, or anything they'll be converted into in the future, might be used on the web). 2. Is it problematic to include spaces in file names? Some file / operating systems don't support spaces in filenames, but do support underscores. Just a note -- We don't use initials as they quickly conflict (atleast in our 150 person company). Using underscores within folder names can sometimes cause ambiguity and lead to broken URLs on your website. You do this so as not to confuse a year with a month. Box OS-independent restrictions: Box does not support '/' and '\' anywhere in a file or folder name or whitespaces at the beginning or end of a file or folder name. So a file for a class (CS 3358), coming from a "Assignment" folder, named "file.cpp" I would name "CS-3358_Assignment_file.cpp", and that system is just for that type of file or folder. For the most part, we've built systems to handle these kinds of problems and exceptions, but sometimes you bump into a hard limit or a piece of bad code. CD-ROM / DVD imaging: is it customary to save scans of booklets / covers as well? Should data repositories remove illegal characters from filenames? 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