is it possible to append if file doesnt already exist?

is it possible that matlab creates the file if it doesnt exist in append mode? i run a program which produces gb's of data. so i keep saving the variables in a file in steps and clear the variables.so i use append. but it says "Unable to write file samp.mat: No such file or directory." i use save function.

Answer 1

[Jan]

The save command needs an existing file for appending. This can be caught easily:

if exist(FileName, 'file')
  save(FileName, '-append');
else
  save(FileName);
end

It could be much faster to write a binary file using FPRINTF.

[karthik]

thank u very much.(very fast response)

[Ali]

I think Mathworks should improve save function: if the file does not exist, matlab automatically creates it; if it exist, matlab append to it.

[Zhe Li]

I agree with Ali. The behavior is different from how native "write" methods in most languages work.