Creating folders outside of the current folder

Hi!

I would like to use MATLAB to create folders in a specified folder. However, I've only been able to get MATLAB to create folder within the current folder (cd) using the 'mkdir' command. Is it possible for it to create folders outside of the current one if it is told where to create it?

Thank you!

Answer 1

[Stephen23]

Of course, just define the parentFolder, or use a relative/absolute path:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/mkdir.html#f7-607707-parentFolder

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_env/specify-file-names.html

I also recommend using function syntax:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_prog/command-vs-function-syntax.html

Putting it all together:

mkdir(ParentFolder,NewSubFolder)
mkdir(fullfile(ParentFolder,NewSubFolder))

[Stephen23]

Chinwe Orie's "Answer" moved here:

Hi Stephen,

Thank you for answering!

I tried doing that with the following code but I get an error in the mkdir line.

The error went away when I removed the paranthesis from the mkdir line, but it didn't create the folder in the selected folder. It went right back to creating the new folder in the current folder.

source_dir = uigetdir(); %allows user to pick the folder to create the file in

ParentFolder = source_dir; %defines the user selection as the parent folder
NewSubFolder = fullfile(source_dir,'rawdata'); %defines location of the new folder
mkdir(ParentFolder,NewSubFolder);

[Stephen23]

Your code defines the source_dir both as the ParentFolder and also as part of the NewSubFolder. I don't see that in my answer or in the MATLAB documentation.

Following exactly what I wrote in my answer, use either of these:

mkdir(source_dir,'rawdata')
mkdir(fullfile(source_dir,'rawdata'))

[Chinwe Orie]

Worked great. Thank you!

[Cory Dinkle]

How could I go about creating a folder outside of the current folder without specifiying the parent folder name?

[Stephen23]

"How could I go about creating a folder outside of the current folder without specifiying the parent folder name?"

Creating a folder requires telling the OS where to create that folder: this may be implicit (e.g. in the current directory) or explicit using a relative/absolute filepath. Perhaps a relative path does what you want.

@Cory Dinkle: please give an example of the path information you have, and the folder that you expect that information to create.