I'll be your Good Samaritan. First, let's cleanup your post.

Dear Monks:

I'm running into a fairly simple problem, but I have not been able to solve it. I have decided to look for some help. I'm not very good at scripting, and I was hoping that I would find a Good Samaritan on this website.

I have files in the following format:

/test1/da/0/1/nnn.dat 
/test1/da/0/2/nnn.dat 
/test1/da/0/3/nnn.dat 
/test1/da/y/n/nnn.dat 
/test1/da/y+1/n+1/nnn.dat 
/test1/da/y+1/n+2/nnn.dat 
/test1/da/y+n/n+n/nnn.dat
[download]

I want to copy all nnn.dat files that are located in every subfolder into a /newfolder/nnn.dat in such a way that each nnn.dat gets renamed according to its location.

For example:

/newfolder/0_1_nnn.dat 
/newfolder/0_2_nnn.dat 
/newfolder/0_3_nnn.dat  
/newfolder/y_n_nnn.dat
[download]

I don't know where to start. What would be a good starting point? Thank you for your help.

===============================================================

How did you do that?

For "Dear Monks:", I wrapped the expression in paragraph and italic tags:

<p><i>Dear Monks</i></p>
[download]

For each paragraph, use tags like this:

<p>I'm running into a fairly simple problem but I have not been able t
+o solve it. I have decided to look for some help. I'm not very good a
+t scripting , and I was hoping I would find a Good Samaritan on this 
+website.</p>
[download]

For your list of files, I wrapped the paths with code tags.

<code>
/test1/da/0/1/nnn.dat 
/test1/da/0/2/nnn.dat 
/test1/da/0/3/nnn.dat 
/test1/da/y/n/nnn.dat 
/test1/da/y+1/n+1/nnn.dat 
/test1/da/y+1/n+2/nnn.dat 
/test1/da/y+n/n+n/nnn.dat 
</code>
[download]

Looking good... Now what? You'll need to follow Grandfather's advice and try to put a script together. You can start by studying the documentation for:

glob
rename
File::Copy
File::GlobMapper

Also, read and reread Writeup Formatting Tips

Now it's up to you. Good luck and keep trying!