ls

List folder contents

Syntax

ls

ls name

list = ls(___)

Description

ls lists the contents of the current folder.

ls name lists the files and folders in the current folder that match the specified name.

list = ls(___) returns the names of all the files and folders in the current folder that match the specified name. You can specify list with any of the arguments in the previous syntaxes.

Examples

List Files and Folders

List all the files and folders with names that contain my.

ls *my*

my_class.m     my_function.m  my_script.m    my_text.txt

List all the files and folders with a .m extension.

ls *.m

my_class.m       my_function.m    my_script.m      test_function.m

Save List of Files and Folders

Save a list of the names of all the files and folders in the current folder to the variable MyList.

MyList = ls;

Input Arguments

name — Name of file or folder

character vector | string scalar

Name of file or folder, specified as a character vector or string scalar. Use the '*' wildcard to match patterns. For example, ls *.m lists all files and folders with a .m extension, and ls m* lists all files and folders with names that begin with the letter m.

Data Types: char | string

Output Arguments

list — List of files and folders

character array

List of files and folders, specified as a character array in one of these formats.

• UNIX^® platforms – list is a character vector of names separated by tab and space characters.

• Microsoft^® Windows^® platforms – list is an m-by-n character array of names. m is the number of names and n is the number of characters in the longest name. MATLAB^® pads names shorter than n characters with space characters.

Tips

• To further modify the results of the ls command on UNIX platforms, you can add any flags that the operating system supports. For example, ls -c displays files by timestamp and ls -d displays only directories. For more information, see the UNIX ls documentation.

Alternatives

Use the dir command to return file attributes for each file and folder in the output argument.

You can also view files and folders in the Current Folder browser by issuing the filebrowser command.