Move into subfolders based on first word?

[dzg]

Let's say I have a folder with these files...

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AAA foo1 30.mov
AAA bar 15.mov
AAA lorem.mov
BBBB foofoo2.mov
BBBB barbar 50.mov
CCCCC ipsum 30.mov
CCCCC gamma 10.mov

I want Hazel to look at files that were added before today, and move them into a subfolder based on the first word of the filename.

So all the files beginning with AAA would go into an AAA subfolder, the BBBB's into the BBBB subfolder, etc.

Is this possible?

[Mr_Noodle]

Yes. Search the help for "match patterns" as that contains an article which explains how to do it.

[dzg]

Yes. Search the help for "match patterns" as that contains an article which explains how to do it.

Sorry, I don't see how that applies.

I want to extract the first word, and then move to (or create if it doesn't already exist) a folder named with that word.

I tried this embedded AppleScript to extract the first word, with a token "x":

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tell application "Finder" to set f to (name of theFile)
set hazelExportTokens to {x:word 1 of f}


and then "sort into subfolder with pattern •x" ... but that's not working.

I don't think the AppleScript values are getting passed

The log shows:

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... hazelworker[41619] [Error] Sorting into subfolder failed: Could not move /Volumes/..... Source and destination are the same.


[dzg]

Ok, I finally found a website that explained I should use

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return {hazelExportTokens:{x:word 1 of f}}

It would have saved me a couple of hours if that were in the manual!

[Mr_Noodle]

You don't need a script for this. If you use match patterns, just create a pattern like:

(•first word) (anything)

where (•first word) is a custom token. You can use (anything) as its pattern to specify any combination of characters. The important part is that you include a space between the custom token and the (anything token) as that will make the custom token only match up to that first space.

Then in your Sort action, just use (•first word).

Again, consult the help article as it has images there which should help.

[dzg]

And this helps too:

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tell application "Finder" to set f to (name of theFile)
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {" ", "_", ".", "-"}
return {hazelExportTokens:{x:text item 1 of f}}


[dzg]

You don't need a script for this. If you use match patterns, just create a pattern like:

(•first word) (anything)

...

Ah, now I see.