folder in a directory

How do you use dir to obtain the names of folders in a directory. I can use

files = dir('*.xls');

to obtain information on the excel files within a specified directory but I have a directory which has 4 folders by using dir I obtain the names of each of the files, how is it possible to save the name of each file so that I can refer to each older within a loop.

cheers

Answer 1

[Junaid]

A = dir % you get everything in current directly of matlab.  or if you want to explicitly mention any directory path then you can do it like this.

A = dir('/yourpath');

now A has all files and directories. So you can access by loop

A(1).name

to get only Directory indexes you can do following code.

myDir = find(vertcat(A.isdir));

now myDir has indexes of directory(folders only).

to print the name of directory to confirm, you can do it like this.

A(myDir).name

where first two are only the pointers. you can always start your loop from 3. Ignore first two indexes.

[Junaid]

I updated the code, to display the name of Directors, last line should be

A(myDir).name

Answer 2

[David Young]

It's perhaps worth noting that 'folder' and 'directory' mean the same thing. Anyway, do you want something like this:

files = dir;   % assume starting from current directory
filenames = {files.name};
subdirs = filenames([files.isdir]);
for s = 1:length(subdirs)
  subdir = subdirs{s};
  % process subdirectory
  disp(subdir);   % for example
end

[ricco]

Thank you. Why is it that when using:

files = dir; % assume starting from current directory

filenames = {files.name};

files returns a 6x1 struct when there are only 4 folder. The first is given as '.' and the second as '..' and then it goes on to naminf the folders!

[David Young]

'.' is the current directory. '..' is the parent of the current directory (the directory that contains the current directory).

[ricco]

many thanks. In addition, do you know how I would use dir('*.xls') in the same context.

So, I now have

path='E:\Practice';

folder = path;

dirListing = dir(folder);

for i=1:length(dirListing);

Data{i}=dirListing(i,1).name;

f{i} = fullfile(path, Data{i});

end

So, 'f' has the path for each of the folders; how could I then find the number of .xls files in each 'f'. I know you can use

files = dir('*.xls');

to find the number of .xls files in a directory but how would you find the number of files in different directories (giuven by 'f')?

[ricco]

I've attempted:

for i=1:length(f)

files(i)=dir(fullfile(path,f(i),'*.xls'));

end

but an error appears!

[ricco]

works now.

for i=1:length(f)

files{i}=dir(fullfile(f{i},'*.xls'));

end

thanks for your help.