shift-training-year

Shift Training Year

Shift year references in training data files (CSV, XLSX) by a specified amount. Designed for annual updates to course training data — handles filenames, CSV content (Order Numbers, dates), and XLSX year columns.

When to Use

• Updating training data files so the years match the current course year
• User says "move year", "shift year", "update year in data/training files"
• Preparing Power BI, Excel, or data analytics training materials for a new year

How It Works

Run the bundled script which handles everything:

python "<skill-path>/scripts/shift_year.py" "<folder-path>" [--shift N] [--dry-run]

• folder-path: Directory containing the data files (CSV + XLSX)
• --shift N: How many years to shift (default: 1). Use negative values to shift backwards.
• --dry-run: Preview what would be renamed/modified without touching the filesystem. No backup is created, no files are renamed or written. Prints a summary of planned operations so the user can sanity-check pattern matches before committing to a destructive run. Strongly recommended as the first pass, especially when:
  • Folder mixes CSV + XLSX with possible cross-domain year-like values (product codes, version numbers, customer birthdays, free-text comments containing 4-digit years)
  • First time running the skill on a new dataset where quoted-string detection or 2000–2099 standalone-year matching might false-match
  • User wants a confidence check before trusting the _backup/ safety net

What the Script Does

CSV files:

• Detects which year(s) appear in each file by scanning quoted strings
• Shifts years only inside quoted strings — this protects unquoted numeric values (StoreKey, CustomerKey, ProductKey, etc.) from accidental changes
• Handles Order Numbers (e.g., "202401011CS952" → "202501011CS952") and dates in DD/MM/YYYY format (e.g., "01/01/2024" → "01/01/2025")
• Renames files that have years in their names (e.g., contoso-online-2024.csv → contoso-online-2025.csv)

XLSX files:

• Shifts any numeric cell value that looks like a year (2000-2099 range) in columns named "Year" or similar
• Also scans all cells for standalone year values if no Year column is found
• Does not rename XLSX files (usually named generically like TargetReport.xlsx)

Important Notes

• The script processes files in reverse year order (highest year first) to prevent double-shifting when multiple years exist in the same file
• Always creates a backup (_backup/) before modifying files — the backup is placed inside the target folder
• CSV encoding is preserved (UTF-8)

Workflow

Default workflow is dry-run-first (rsync-style — preview, then commit):

1. User provides the folder path containing training data
2. Confirm with user: which files to process and the shift amount
3. Dry-run pass — run script with --dry-run and show the planned renames/modifications to the user
4. If the preview looks wrong (unexpected files matched, year false-matches in product codes / comments / metadata cells), adjust scope (exclude files, change shift amount) and dry-run again
5. Once preview looks correct → run the script for real (without --dry-run) — this creates _backup/ then modifies files
6. Verify a sample of the output to make sure it looks correct
7. If user is satisfied, the backup folder can be deleted

Example

User: เลื่อนปีใน training data ไป 1 ปี folder C:\...\Contoso

Step 1: List files in the folder
Step 2: Confirm with user
Step 3: Dry-run preview
  python "<skill-path>/scripts/shift_year.py" "C:\...\Contoso" --dry-run
  → review planned renames + content changes (no files touched yet)
Step 4: Real run (after user approves preview)
  python "<skill-path>/scripts/shift_year.py" "C:\...\Contoso"
Step 5: Spot-check a few rows from each file

Expected dry-run output

[DRY-RUN] Would rename: contoso-online-2024.csv -> contoso-online-2025.csv
[DRY-RUN] Would modify: orders.csv (124 quoted year refs: 2024->2025)
[DRY-RUN] Would skip:   TargetReport.xlsx (no Year column, 0 standalone years)
[DRY-RUN] Total: 3 renames, 2 file modifications, 0 backups created

Related Skills

• /xlsx-thepexcel — Read/edit XLSX files directly; use when year-shifted data needs further spreadsheet manipulation