Flat Folder
I was organizing my digital photos this weekend, when I needed to copy lots of pictures from several folders into one folder. A quick Google search didn’t turn up any specific programs, although a few utility suites have the functionality to do what I wanted.
Side note: In Linux, I could have written a shell script to do this pretty quick. I probably could have done the same with a batch file, but it just felt wrong.
So, since I’m too lazy to actually do what I perceive as work, I wrote a quick C# program to do the job. Just in case I want to flatten a bunch of file folders later. Or, if my wife wants to… Okay, okay. I admit it. I wrote the program just for the fun of it! What can I say, I’m a geek.
Also, since I’m a sharing kind of person, I created a project on Source Forge and uploaded the end result. So, if you have a bunch of files in a bunch of folders, and for some crazy reason you want all the file consolidated in a single folder, you should head over to the project page at Source Forge and download it.
Category: Software | Tags: collapse, files, folders, utility 4 comments »
September 20th, 2009 at 11:55 am
Thanks for sharing, I was searching for something do flatten directories and there don’t seem to be many available tools like this. It works great, but there doesn’t seem to be any way to go above ‘My Documents’. It would be useful to be able to go all the way up to My Computer so I can also select directories on other drives. And if you’re feeling really inspired to add to it, it would also be useful to allow folders to be dropped directly onto the application window!
Thanks again, great app.
September 21st, 2009 at 6:36 am
Yep. I noticed that on some computers it tops out at My Documents. I think it may have something to do with the version of Windows. I developed it on Windows XP. When I get some time, I’ll look into it. Actually, the drag and drop should be pretty easy to implement.
Check back in a week or two.
August 6th, 2010 at 11:55 am
This utility is horrible. If duplicate file names are present in the folder structure the utility overwrites them. Do not use this utility if you want funcational data after you flatten.
August 6th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
Ouch! Sorry about that. You shouldn’t have lost any data, though, since it doesn’t touch the originals.
As I said in this post, I built it in a few hours to address a specific issue I was having. Since it’s GPL licensed, you’re welcome to edit the source code to add in advanced duplicate checks and handling.