How do I prevent imported data being overwriten generated within a loop?

Hi all, hope you're all well today. I am trying to prevent the last file from getting overwritten as it runs through the loop, because I want to be able to import all the files from that folder without them getting overwritten. 'theFiles' save in a 68x1 struct which contains all the filenames, FYI. My question is, how can I stop the files from being overwritten so I can use the data inside the struct? I apologies if it does not make sense, let me know & and i'll try to clarify it again. Thank you.

clc 
close all
clear all

myFolder = 'C:\Users\MAR818\Desktop\Moving Vehicle_Weight_Identificaton\Combined Data';

if ~isdir(myFolder)
   errorMessage = sprintf('Error: The following folder does not exist, please double check file name/folder location:\n%s', myFolder);
   uiwait(warndlg(errorMessage));
   return;
end
% Get a list all the files in the folder with the desired file name
% pattern.

filePattern =fullfile(myFolder,'*.txt'); % this is changeable to whatever pattern is required.
theFiles = dir(filePattern);
for k = 1 : length(theFiles)
    baseFileName = theFiles(k).name;
    fullFileName = fullfile(myFolder,baseFileName);
    fprintf(1, 'now reading %s\n', fullFileName);
    fileID = importdata(fullFileName);
end

%Problem using this code, every time it loops the last file gets
%overwritten with the newly imported data. Find a way to solve this issue.

Answer 1

[KSSV]

filePattern =fullfile(myFolder,'*.txt'); % this is changeable to whatever pattern is required.
theFiles = dir(filePattern);
fileData = cell(length(theFiles),1)
for k = 1 : length(theFiles)
    baseFileName = theFiles(k).name;
    fullFileName = fullfile(myFolder,baseFileName);
    fprintf(1, 'now reading %s\n', fullFileName);
    fileData{k} = importdata(fullFileName);
end

Note that, your files are not over written. Files are as such. When you are importing data (fileID) is getting overwritten. It is a variable in work space. You have to save them for each file. I have modified your lines. Please check. fileID is renamed to fileData. It is a cell, you can access the data using fileData{1}, fileData{2} etc,.

[fabian Maritato]

I see what you've done there and the code does generate a 68x1 cell, which becomes a 1x1 struct when you click inside a cell, I can't seem to use the data which has been imported, which contains 45000x31 of information.

[KSSV]

What is the purpose of importing data? You can use the file's data using fileData{1} etc.

[fabian Maritato]

I'm just learning how to use matlab, and wanted to find efficient ways to import a set of files from a folder then be able to take information from the files imported. ie, sets of data... like columns etc to use for graphing and algorithms.

[KSSV]

For graphing, you need to to load all the files data and waste memory. You have to follow something like below:

filePattern =fullfile(myFolder,'*.txt'); % this is changeable to whatever pattern is required.
theFiles = dir(filePattern);
figure 
hold on
for k = 1 : length(theFiles)
    baseFileName = theFiles(k).name;
    fullFileName = fullfile(myFolder,baseFileName);
    fprintf(1, 'now reading %s\n', fullFileName);
    fileData = importdata(fullFileName);
    % plot your data
end
% save the figure

[fabian Maritato]

I found the error before why I couldn't get any data to open from the struct, was because the files had messed up. The first code works! Just need to find a way to figure out with file belongs to which data set!

and thank you mate, appreciate it.