Question

I want to delete all the files in the current directory which do not contain the string “sample” in their name.

for instance,

test_final_1.exe
test_initial_1.exe
test_sample_1.exe
test_sample_2.exe

I want to delete all the files other than the ones containing sample in their name.

for %i in (*.*) do if not %i == "*sample*" del /f /q %i

Is the use of wild card character in the if condition allowed?
Does, (*.*) represent the current directory?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Easiest to use FIND or FINDSTR with /V option to look for names that don’t contain a string, and /I option for case insenstive search. Switch to FOR /F and pipe results of DIR to FIND.

for /f "eol=: delims=" %F in ('dir /b /a-d * ^| find /v /i "sample"') do del "%F"

change %F to %%F if used in a batch file.