Let me start by saying that I am not a programmer.
Here is what I want to do: I have a folder full of files. The names look like this: R0135667.JPG. The files start with the above file name and increase sequentially by one. Typically I have between 700 and 8000 files in a folder. I want to extract all the files that end with 0 and 5 (or alternately 1 and 6) and put them in a new folder. I.E., I am trying to extract every fifth file. I was excited thinking I could solve this problem with Automator using Find Finder Items Action to find the files and a Copy Finder Items Action to copy them into a folder.
When I tried the the Find Finder Items Action I requested Automator to find all files that end with 0. Result: no files found - finder considers all my files to end with .jpg
So I changed it to find all files that end with 0.jpg Result: no files found. For some reason if the file names contain a zero elsewhere they are not found. So, since all of the file names start with zero they are all excluded. Likewise for all numbers that end with 3. For other numbers you only get a find if the number is not contained in the file name.
It seems like The Automator Find Finder Item action doesn't work very good. Any ideas that will help me accomplish my goal will be appreciated whether I use Automator or not. Thanks!
Here is what I want to do: I have a folder full of files. The names look like this: R0135667.JPG. The files start with the above file name and increase sequentially by one. Typically I have between 700 and 8000 files in a folder. I want to extract all the files that end with 0 and 5 (or alternately 1 and 6) and put them in a new folder. I.E., I am trying to extract every fifth file. I was excited thinking I could solve this problem with Automator using Find Finder Items Action to find the files and a Copy Finder Items Action to copy them into a folder.
When I tried the the Find Finder Items Action I requested Automator to find all files that end with 0. Result: no files found - finder considers all my files to end with .jpg
So I changed it to find all files that end with 0.jpg Result: no files found. For some reason if the file names contain a zero elsewhere they are not found. So, since all of the file names start with zero they are all excluded. Likewise for all numbers that end with 3. For other numbers you only get a find if the number is not contained in the file name.
It seems like The Automator Find Finder Item action doesn't work very good. Any ideas that will help me accomplish my goal will be appreciated whether I use Automator or not. Thanks!