Creating multiple sub-folders using MKDIR from a command prompt

Here is the situation. You need to create several subfolders inside a folder and name them appropriately.

One way is to create each folder one by one and then rename them again one at a time. This method would be fine if you had to create only a few folders. But what if you need to create several such folders. Doing it using the above method would be quite tedious and time consuming.

Here’s a little command prompt trick that can help you immensely.

1. Open Notepad and type in a list of the names of the folders you need to create, with each name in a separate line.
2. Save this file in the folder in which you want to create the sub-folders. This will save you the trouble of having to type out the entire path. Let’s call this file folders.txt.
3. Open a command prompt in that folder and type:

FOR /F %n IN (folders.txt) DO MKDIR %n

and hit Enter. Within seconds the folder would all be created.

You can use any single letter instead of n, and the command will take each line of the file and DO a MKDIR with the name it finds.

A variant is to use:

FOR /F “tokens=*” %n IN (folders.txt) DO MKDIR %n

This version will process items on the same line, separated by spaces. To create folders with a space in the name, use the second method and enclose the name in double quotes. So, for example, a text file containing the line

“January February” March April May

will produce four folders when fed to the FOR command, the first being named “January February” and the others named March, April and May.

Subscribe Now

If you enjoyed this post, you will definitely enjoy our others. Subscribe to the feed to get future posts delivered right to your mailbox or feedreader.

• Subscribe to our RSS Feed
• Subscribe for Email Updates

Powered by Thesis

An amazing WordPress Theme, nothing beats the versatility and SEO friendliness of the Thesis framework.

From beginners, to the most advanced WordPress developers, Thesis makes it easy for anyone to customize it.

• Get Started With Thesis Now