How to extract file names in a loop into a character array? - matlab

Question

I have a code like below. I want to generate an array with all the file names and combine with the data that I collected from each file.
DataCC = dir('*-CC.xls'); %select the file type
MeanAreaCC=[];
PlateNameCC=[];
for w = 1: numel(DataCC)
basefilenamedata=DataCC(w).name; %extract the file name
T=readtable(basefilenamedata); %read table in
PlateNameCC=[PlateNameCC basefilenamedata]; %generate the file name array
MeanAreaCC = [MeanAreaCC mean(T.Area)]; %generate the data array
end
x=array2table([PlateNameCC, transpose(MeanAreaCC)],'VariableNames',{'Iso-Condi-Rep','MeanAreaCC'}); %combine two arrays just generated
writetable(x,fullfile(DataFolder,'DataSummary.xls'),'Sheet',1,'Range','A1');
But my code didn't work, as the PlateNameCC is generated as one character but not an array. This came to an error complaining different array size, when I combine PlateNameCC with MeanAreaCC. Could somebody check it for me? Thank you!

Answer 1

There are a couple things wrong here.
First, PlateNameCC = [PlateNameCC basefilenamedata]; is going to create one long string of garbage.
For example:
fnames = dir('*.m')
namelist = [];
for ii = 1:numel(fnames)
namelist = [namelist fnames(ii).name]
end
Gives me:
namelist =
'SOcode.mcallbacksclass.mtestcode.m'
You want to use a string array or a cell array:
fnames = dir('*.m');
namelist1 = string({fnames.name});
namelist2 = {fnames.name};
Which returns:
namelist1 =
1×3 string array
"SOcode.m" "callbacksclass.m" "testcode.m"
namelist2 =
1×3 cell array
{'SOcode.m'} {'callbacksclass.m'} {'testcode.m'}
Second, there's no point trying to concatenate two (very) unlike arrays to create a table when you can just use the table constructor itself:
fnames = dir('*.m');
namelist = string({fnames.name});
data = [1, 2, 3];
T = table(namelist.', data.');
Which gives:
T =
3×2 table
Var1 Var2
__________________ ____
"SOcode.m" 1
"callbacksclass.m" 2
"testcode.m" 3