FileCopy

Copies one or more files.

FileCopy SourcePattern, DestPattern , Overwrite

Parameters

SourcePattern

Type: String

The name of a single file or folder, or a wildcard pattern such as "C:\Temp\*.tmp". SourcePattern is assumed to be in A_WorkingDir if an absolute path isn't specified.

Both asterisks (*) and question marks (?) are supported as wildcards. * matches zero or more characters and ? matches any single character. Usage examples:

DestPattern

Type: String

The name or pattern of the destination, which is assumed to be in A_WorkingDir if an absolute path isn't specified.

If present, the first asterisk (*) in the filename is replaced with the source filename excluding its extension, while the first asterisk after the last full stop (.) is replaced with the source file's extension. If an asterisk is present but the extension is omitted, the source file's extension is used.

To perform a simple copy -- retaining the existing file name(s) -- specify only the folder name as shown in these mostly equivalent examples:

FileCopy "C:\*.txt", "C:\My Folder"
FileCopy "C:\*.txt", "C:\My Folder\*.*"

The destination directory must already exist. If My Folder does not exist, the first example above will use "My Folder" as the target filename, while the second example will copy no files.

Overwrite

Type: Integer

If omitted, it defaults to 0. Otherwise, specify one of the following numbers to indicate whether to overwrite files if they already exist:

0: Do not overwrite existing files. The operation will fail and have no effect if DestPattern already exists as a file or directory.

1: Overwrite existing files. However, any files or subfolders inside DestPattern that do not have a counterpart in SourcePattern will not be deleted.

Other values are reserved for future use.

Error Handling

An Error is thrown if any files failed to be copied, with its Extra property set to the number of failures. If no files were found, an error is thrown only if SourcePattern lacks the wildcards * and ?. In other words, copying a wildcard pattern such as "*.txt" is considered a success when it does not match any files.

Unlike FileMove, copying a file onto itself is always counted as an error, even if the overwrite mode is in effect.

If files were found, A_LastError is set to 0 (zero) or the result of the operating system's GetLastError() function immediately after the last failure. Otherwise A_LastError contains an error code that might indicate why no files were found.

Remarks

FileCopy copies files only. To instead copy the contents of a folder (all its files and subfolders), see the examples section below. To copy a single folder (including its subfolders), use DirCopy.

The operation will continue even if error(s) are encountered.

FileMove, DirCopy, DirMove, FileDelete

Examples

Makes a copy but keep the original file name.

FileCopy "C:\My Documents\List1.txt", "D:\Main Backup\"

Copies a file into the same directory by providing a new name.

FileCopy "C:\My File.txt", "C:\My File New.txt"

Copies text files to a new location and gives them a new extension.

FileCopy "C:\Folder1\*.txt", "D:\New Folder\*.bkp"

Copies all files and folders inside a folder to a different folder.

ErrorCount := CopyFilesAndFolders("C:\My Folder\*.*", "D:\Folder to receive all files & folders")
if ErrorCount != 0
    MsgBox ErrorCount " files/folders could not be copied."

CopyFilesAndFolders(SourcePattern, DestinationFolder, DoOverwrite := false)
; Copies all files and folders matching SourcePattern into the folder named DestinationFolder and
; returns the number of files/folders that could not be copied.
{
    ErrorCount := 0
    ; First copy all the files (but not the folders):
    try
        FileCopy SourcePattern, DestinationFolder, DoOverwrite
    catch as Err
        ErrorCount := Err.Extra
    ; Now copy all the folders:
    Loop Files, SourcePattern, "D"  ; D means "retrieve folders only".
    {
        try
            DirCopy A_LoopFilePath, DestinationFolder "\" A_LoopFileName, DoOverwrite
        catch
        {
            ErrorCount += 1
            ; Report each problem folder by name.
            MsgBox "Could not copy " A_LoopFilePath " into " DestinationFolder
        }
    }
    return ErrorCount
}