Delete files in folder; keep last file of each day

[Dr. Demento]

I create a timestamped backup of my Personal.xlsb (filename & "_yyyymmdd_hhss") everytime I save it. As you can imagine, this leads to a lot of versions each day. Sometimes I need to go back a few hours within the day, so creating the backups using the date only doesn't work.

Could someone give me some pointers how I might loop thru all files within a specified folder, and deleting all files EXCEPT the last saved file of each individual day. I'd likely run this once a week, so I keep the number of files manageable.

For example, if the following files were in a folder:

Personal.xlsb_20160914_1023.bak
Personal.xlsb_20160914_1700.bak
Personal.xlsb_20160915_1156.bak
Personal.xlsb_20160915_1444.bak
Personal.xlsb_20160915_1603.bak

All files except the two below would get deleted:

Personal.xlsb_20160914_1700.bak
Personal.xlsb_20160915_1603.bak

Thanks y'all.

 

[JLGWhiz]

I think I would use something like a Workbook_BeforeSave event.

Private Sub Workbook_BeforeSave(Cancel As Boolean)
Dim myPath As String, fName As String, dt As String
myPath = ThisWorkbook.Path
dt = Format(Date, "yyyymmdd")
If Right(myPath, 1) <> "\" Then myPath = myPath & "\"
fName = Dir(myPath & "*.*" & dt & "*.bak")
    Do While fName <> ""
        If Right(fName, 4) < Right(ThisWorkbook.Name, 4) Then Kill fName
        fName = Dir
    Loop
End If
End Sub

The code is untested.

 

[Dr. Demento]

JLGWhiz,

Much appreciated. However, I'm not looking to immediately delete all files at the end of each day; instead, I would run this once a week. Given this, the sub would need to cycle thru each individual date, identify the last time for each date, and delete (or move; probably safer than outright deleting) the other files within that date.

I would imagine that it would consist of two loops - the outside loop to cycle thru the dates and the inside loop to cycle thru the times within that date. Would the inner loop use Step -1 (start at the last time, and move/delete any time less than the daily max time)? I just can't figure out how to construct loops that look in the middle of a string and evaluate/discriminate.

Thanks much.

 

[Dr. Demento]

Bump?

 

[Dr. Demento]

To fill in the blanks, I thought I'd post a solution from Marc L (Chandoo.org)

Sub Demo()
         Dim SP$, TE$, V
     With CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")
         For Each V In [{"Personal.xlsb_20160914_1700.bak","Personal.xlsb_20160914_1023.bak","Personal.xlsb_20160915_1156.bak","Personal.xlsb_20160915_1444.bak","Personal.xlsb_20160915_1603.bak"}]
                    SP = Split(V, "_")(1)
                    TE = .Item(SP)
             If V > TE Then
                 .Item(SP) = V
                 If TE > "" Then Debug.Print TE; " : moved"
             Else
                 Debug.Print V; " : moved"
             End If
         Next
              Debug.Print vbLf; "The"; .Count; "last files :"; vbLf; Join(.Items, vbLf)
             .RemoveAll
     End With
End Sub