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Create an Excel workbook with metadata for all subfolders of a directory

Source: R/write_directory_report.R
write_directory_report.Rd

Scans each immediate subfolder of the specified directory (excluding any listed in exclude_folders) and writes an Excel file containing file-level metadata. Each subfolder gets its own sheet, listing all files (recursively) with their name, size, and last modified timestamp.

Optionally, an additional column named "Archive" is included in each sheet. The values of "Archive" will later be used by create_archive() to indicate the destination folder for copying or converting files.

Usage

write_directory_report(
  dir,
  path_to_directory_report,
  exclude_folders = "_Archive",
  autocomplete_values = NA,
  overwrite = FALSE
)

Arguments

dir

Character. Path to the directory whose immediate subfolders should be scanned.

path_to_directory_report

Character. Path to the Excel file to be written (e.g., "C:/study/dir_report.xlsx").

exclude_folders

Character vector. Names of subfolders to exclude from processing.

autocomplete_values

Optional. Controls whether the "Archive" column is included and which (if any) autocomplete values are to be provided:

  • If NULL, the "Archive" column is not included.

  • If NA, a column "Archive" is included but autocomplete and filtering in Excel will not be available.

  • If a character vector is provided, a column "Archive" is included and autocomplete and filtering in Excel is enabled, making it easier to assign target folders for file archiving.

overwrite

Logical, indicating whether to overwrite existing report.

Value

Invisibly returns the path to the written Excel file.

Details

The Excel workbook includes:

  • One sheet per immediate subfolder of the specified directory

  • Each sheet contains a recursive listing of all files in that subfolder (including sub-subfolders)

  • Optional autocomplete rows inserted directly below the header (e.g., for manual annotation)

  • Column widths and light styling for improved readability

Files located in any subfolder whose name matches one of the entries in exclude_folders will be excluded entirely (i.e., they are not scanned or listed).

This function is intended as part of a file management workflow in which files may later be reviewed, copied, or converted based on the generated metadata file.

See also

createWorkbook, dir_ls, file.info

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
# Write metadata for all subfolders of "my_project/"
write_directory_report("my_project/", "metadata_summary.xlsx")

# Include an autocomplete row with names of archival folders
write_directory_report("my_project/", "summary.xlsx", autocomplete_values = c("contracts", "data"))

# Include all subfolders (do not exclude any)
write_directory_report("my_project/", "summary.xlsx", exclude_folders = NULL)
} # }