Empty EXIF tag, can i use alternative value?

Hi , i saw a previoius form post on this, and wondered if it had been added as a feature - or if there is a workaround without using scripting? https://www.advancedrenamer.com/forum_thread?for um_id=3208

I want to use <ExifTool:DateTimeOriginal> to rename my files and then sort them into directories based on Yr/Mon, but a lot of my 20,000 images dont have this data populated. In this case my best alternative would be DateModified, but i dont know how to easily set this up?

Looked like Ken had the idea how to do this, but not yet implemented?

Thanks for any advice - J

A simple workaround is to rename your files with the ExifTool tag and then add a Replace method using Date/Time Modified tags to timestamp the files where ExifTool data was not available.

If your new filenames will contain only the date/time then all you need to do in the second step is search for a null filename - eg...

Replace: ^$
With: <Year Modified>_<Month Modified>_<Day Modified> <Hour Modified>_<Min Modified>_<Sec Modified>
Use regular expressions

It will be slightly more complicated - but still straightforward - if the new filenames will contain other information

Note: the regex "^$" searches for <start-of-string> followed immediately by <end-of-string> - ie a null string.

Reply to #2:

David, firstly a big Thank You! for taking the time and effort to respond to me. I noticed that you had tried to help a lot of people with questions on the forum, not all of whom seem to appreciate it! :)

OK, also like a number of other people, your suggestions put me on the right path and I now have a solution!

When a file doesnt have an exif DateTaken, the filename becomes "separator + incremental number" because i am using a Collision Rule. So i end up with files called -001.jpg , -002, etc. I need to use the Collision Rule in case there are duplicate files , which i know there are [will remove them later using Duplicate Cleaner or WinMerge ].

So, once i had understood the Basic Principle of AR - that the 'Method list' runs sequentially to the end before 'outputing' the change, i worked out a solution.

Method 1. NewName

<ExifTool:DateTimeOriginal>£<Inc Nr:1>£

This creates the filename based on Datetaken and then adds £01£ , £02£, etc to the end of the filename. Where there is NO exif DateTaken, the filename is £03£, etc.

So, then I use a modification of your suggestion, and i do this

Method 2. Replace

Txt to be replaced: ^£\d+£
Replace with: <Year Modified>_<Month Modified>_<Day Modified>_<Hour Modified>_<Min Modified>_<Sec Modified>
Use regular expressions

This finds all the files with no DateTaken and renames them with the Date Modified. Now i need to get rid of the £01£ etc from the files that did have anb exif DateTaken, so i add

Method 3. Replace

Txt to be replaced: £\d£
Replace with:
Use Regular expressions

This gets rid of the unique £number£ in the filenames - and the beauty is that I have left Collision Rule working (with Hyphen separator and Number), so removing the unique £number£ is not a problem. My duplicates just get -001, -002, etc added to the filenames.

Have yet to try on a big batch, but with a number of use cases, it looks to work perfectly!

Again, thanks for your help David.

{dont know how to add screen shots easily.}