Remove First/Last N chars from file names?

Question

I have many files in one folder where the actual name of the file is preceeded by a few characters, and other files in another folder where the actual name of the file is followed by a few characters.  In Windows I could create a batch file in the directory, then when I run the file all other files in its directory are shortened by N characters from either the beginning or the end of the name, depending on what I wrote.
Is it possible to do such a thing in AppleScript?  If so, would someone please point me to a resource or give me an example?  Thank you very much in advance.

Answer 1

Hi,
Avai wrote:
Is it possible to do such a thing in AppleScript?  If so, would someone please point me to a resource or give me an example?
Yes, it's possible.
Here a example
set nCharacters to 4
set theFolder to choose folder
display dialog "remove characters in name :" buttons {"Cancel", "End", "Beginning"} cancel button "Cancel"
set btn to button returned of the result
tell application "Finder"
  repeat with thisFile in (get document files in theFolder)
  try
  tell thisFile to set name to my cutChars(name, btn, nCharacters)
  end try
  end repeat
end tell
on cutChars(t, b, n)
  if b is "End" then
  return text 1 thru -(n + 1) of t
  else
  return text (n + 1) thru -1 of t
  end if
end cutChars