Help with AppleScript/ Automator Code

Question

I am an intern at an architecture firm, and I would like to know if there is any way to code a program (using AppleScript or Automator) to complete this task:
Combine files that have similar file names into a folder and rename the file as the first file automatically. There are hundreds of files, and an expedient and efficient way of completing this task would be greatly appreciated.
For example:
I have files:
07-480-1.jpg
07-480-2.jpg
07-480-3.jpg
07-480-4.jpg
07-481-1.jpg
07-481-2.jpg
07-481-3.jpg
07-481-4.jpg
07-481-5.jpg
I want to select files names with similar characters (07-480 and 07-481) and place them into respective folders.
So the folders would be called
07-480-1
07-481-1
Any advice would be helpful.
Thank You!
OSX 10.9.5

Answer 1

Almost anything is possible... the issue is the work-effort required to achieve the desired result.
In this case there are a lot of variables that you haven't covered, which may make the job easier or harder.
For example, you give a series of example file names, and appear to want to group them by the same initial 6 characters (although your example seems to create folder names based on the first 8 characters of the first match... is that true? Without knowing the background, I would expect '07-480-1.jpg' to go into the  '07-480' folder, not the '07-481-1' folder). Those kinds of details will make a difference.
So if my theory is correct ('07-480' should be the folder name), do you want to create a folder every time? or only when there are two or more files (e.g. do you want an '07-490' folder when there's only one relevant file?
Here's a starting point. I'm assuming that you want the '07-480' form of the folder. When the script runs it will ask for the folder to check, then (blindly) iterate through the files in that folder, moving them into folders based on the first 6 characters of the file name, making new folders as needed:
tell application "Finder"
  set theFolder to (choose folder)
  repeat with eachfile in (get files of theFolder)
  -- assume the standard filename format
  -- may need error checking here to make sure the name matches what we expect
  -- for now we just skip over any errors through the use of a try statement
  try
  -- get the first 6 characters of the file name
  set basename to characters 1 through 6 of (get name of eachfile) as text
  -- check if we already have a folder of the desired name
  if (not (exists folder basename of theFolder)) then
  -- we don't, so make one
  make new folder at theFolder with properties {name:basename}
  end if
  -- now move the file into the folder
  move eachfile to folder basename of theFolder
  end try
  end repeat
end tell