Saving strings from the input .txt filename - MATLAB - matlab

Question

Via textscan, I am reading a number of .txt files:
fid1 = fopen('Ev_An_OM2_l5_5000.txt','r');
This is a simplification as in reality I am loading several hundred .txt files via:
files = dir('Ev_An*.txt');
Important information not present within the .txt files themselves are instead part of the filename.
Is there a way to concisely extract portions of the filename and save them as strings/numbers? For example saving 'OM2' and '5000' from the above filename as variables.
fileparts appears to require the full path of the file rather than just defaulting to the MATLAB folder as with textscan.

Answer 1

It depends on how fixed your filename is. If your filename is in the string filename, then you can use regexp to extract parts of your filename, like so:
filename = 'Ev_An_OM2_l5_5000.txt'; %or whatever
parts = regexp(filename,'[^_]+_[^_]+_([^_]+)_[^_]+_([^\.]+)\.txt','tokens');
This will give you parts{1}=='OM2' and parts{2}=='5000', assuming that your filename is always in the form of
something_something_somethingofinterest_something_somethingofinterest.txt
Update:
If you like structs more than cells, then you can name your tokens like so:
parts = regexp(filename,'[^_]+_[^_]+_(?<first>[^_]+)_[^_]+_(?<second>[^\.]+)\.txt','names');
in which case parts.first=='OM2' and parts.second=='5000'. You can obviously name your tokens according to their actual meaning, since they are important. You just have to change first and second accordingly in the code above.
Update2:
If you use dir to get your filenames, you should have a struct array with loads of unnecessary information. If you really just need the file names, I'd use a for loop like so:
files = dir('Ev_An*.txt');
for i=1:length(files)
filename=files(i).name;
parts = regexp(filename,'[^_]+_[^_]+_(?<first>[^_]+)_[^_]+_(?<second>[^\.]+)\.txt','tokens');
%here do what you want with parts.first, parts.second and the file itself
end