importing excel into matlab - matlab

I have 4 folders in the same directory where each folder contains ~19 .xls files. I have written the code below to obtain the name of each of the folders and the name of each .xls file within the folders.
path='E:\Practice';
folder = path;
dirListing = dir(folder);
dirListing=dirListing(3:end);%first 2 are just pointers
for i=1:length(dirListing);
f{i} = fullfile(path, dirListing(i,1).name);%obtain the name of each folder
files{i}=dir(fullfile(f{i},'*.xls'));%find the .xls files
for j=1:length(files{1,i});
File_Name{1,i}{j,1}=files{1,i}(j,1).name;%find the name of each .xls file
end
end
Now I'm trying to import the data from excel into matlab by using xlsread. What I'm struggling with is knowing how to load the data into matlab within a loop where the excel files are in different directories (different folders).
This leaves me with a 1x4 cell named File_Name where each cell refers to a different folder located under 'path', and within each cell is then the name of the spreadsheets wanting to be imported. The size of the cells vary as the number of spreadsheets in each folder varies.
Any ideas?
thanks in advance

I'm not sure if I'm understanding your problem, but all you have to do is concatenate the strings that contain directory (f{}) and the file name. Modifying your code:
for i=1:length(dirListing);
f{i} = fullfile(path, dirListing(i,1).name);%obtain the name of each folder
files{i}=dir(fullfile(f{i},'*.xls'));%find the .xls files
for j=1:length(files{1,i});
File_Name{1,i}{j,1}=files{1,i}(j,1).name;%find the name of each .xls file
fullpath = [f{i} '/' File_Name{1,i}{j,1}];
disp(['Reading file: ' fullpath])
x = xlsread(fullpath);
end
end
This works on *nix systems. You may have to join the filenames with a '\' on Windows. I'll find a more elegant way and update this posting.
Edit: The command filesep gives the forward or backward slash, depending on your system. The following should give you the full path:
fullpath = [f{i} filesep File_Name{1,i}{j,1}];

Take a look at this helper function, written by a member of the matlab community.
It allows you to recursively search through directories to find files that match a certain pattern. This is a super handy function to use when looking to match files.
You should be able to find all your files in a single call to this function. Then you can loop through the results of the rdir function, loading the files one at a time into whatever data structure you want.

Related

Reading a file from a different directory in matlab

My matlab function is in a folder that contains the main project and the other functions of the code. However, the data is stored in a folder withing the main one named "data" and inside the specific dataset that i want, for example "ded4" in this example. I can't figure out how to open the text file that I want without changing the file to the main folder. The code I have so far is:
function[Classify] = Classify(logDir)
%%%%logDir='ded014a04';
Directory = ['data/' logDir '/']
Filename = [logDir '-fixationsOffSet']
File_name = fullfile(Directory,Filename)
File = fopen(File_name,'r')
end
The code is in the 'dev' folder, I think my path is correct because when I do
open(File_name)
it opens.
Thanks for the help
If you want to open the file in the editor, use
open(File_name)
If you want to read data from the file, you can use
dlmread(File_name) % Read ASCII delimited file.
or
C = textscan(File,'FORMAT') % Read formatted data from text file or string.
or more low-level using fscanf, e.g., if the file contains three columns of integers you do the following: Read the values in column order, and transpose to match the appearance of the file: (from the help of fprintf)
fid = fopen('count.dat');
A = fscanf(fid,'%d',[3,inf])';
fclose(fid);

Error code in importing multiple csv files from certain folder using matlab

I am really a newbie in matlab programming. I have a problem in coding to import multiple csv files into one from certain folder:
This is my code:
%% Importing multiple CSV files
myDir = uigetdir; %gets directory
myFiles = dir(fullfile(myDir,'*.csv')); %gets all csv files in struct
for k = 1:length(myFiles)
data{k} = csvread(myFiles{k});
end
I use the code uigetdir in order to be able to select data from any folder, because I try to make an automation program so it would be flexible to use by others. The code that I run only look for the directory and shows the list, but not for merging the csv files into one and read it in "import data". I want it to be merged and read as one file.
My merged file should look like this with semicolon delimited and consist of 47 csv files merged together (this picture is one of the csv file I have):
my merged file
I have been working for it a whole day but I find always error code. Please help me :(. Thank you very much in advance for your help.
As the error message states, you're attempting to reference myFiles as a cell array when it is not. The output of dir is a structure, which cannot be indexed like a cell array.
You want to do something like the following:
for k = 1:numel(myFiles)
filepath = fullfile(myFiles(k).folder, myFiles(k).name);
data{k} = csvread(filepath);
end

read multiple file from folder

I want to read multiple files from a folder but this code does not work properly:
direction=dir('data');
for i=3:length(direction)
Fold_name=strcat('data\',direction(i).name);
filename = fullfile(Fold_name);
fileid= fopen(filename);
data = fread (fileid)';
end
I modified your algorithm to make it easier
Just use this form :
folder='address\datafolder\' ( provide your folder address where data is located)
then:
filenames=dir([folder,'*.txt']); ( whatever your data format is, you can specify it in case you have other files you do not want to import, in this example, i used .txt format files)
for k = 1 : numel(filenames)
Do your code
end
It should work. It's a much more efficient method, as it can apply to any folder without you worrying about names, number order etc... Unless you want to specify certain files with the same format within the folder. I would recommend you to use a separate folder to put your files in.
In case of getting access to all the files after reading:
direction=dir('data');
for i=3:length(direction)
Fold_name=strcat('data\',direction(i).name);
filename = fullfile(Fold_name);
fileid(i)= fopen(filename);
data{i-2} = fread (fileid(i))';
end

How to remove a pattern from filename in Matlab

I'd like to remove '-2' from the filenames looking like this:
EID-NFBSS-2FE454B7-2_TD.eeg
EID-NFBSS-2FE454B7-2_TD.vhdr
EID-NFBSS-2FE454B7-2_TD.vmrk
EID-NFBSS-3B3BF9FA-2_BU.eeg
EID-NFBSS-2FE454B7-2_PO.txt
So as you may see the names of the files are different and there are different kind of extensions as well. All what I want to do is remove '-2' from all of the filenames. I was trying use this:
pattern = '-2';
replacement = '';
regexprep(filename,pattern,replacement)
and I got the results in the console, but after many attempts I have no idea how to 'say' to MATLAB switch the filnames in the same location.
#excaza hit it right on the money. You'll have to probe your desired directory for a list of files via dir, then loop through each filename and remove any occurrences of -2, then use movefile to rename the file, and delete to delete the old file.
Something like this comes to mind:
%// Get all files in this directory
d = fullfile('path', 'to', 'folder', 'here');
directory = dir(d);
%// For each file in this directory...
for ii = 1 : numel(directory)
%// Get the relative filename
name = directory(ii).name;
%// Replace any instances of -2 with nothing
name_after = regexprep(name, '-2', '');
%// If the string has changed after this...
if ~strcmpi(name, name_after)
%// Get the absolute path to both the original file and
%// the new file name
fullname = fullfile(directory, name);
fullname_after = fullfile(directory, name_after);
%// Create the new file
movefile(fullname, fullname_after);
%// Delete the old file
delete(fullname);
end
end
The logic behind this is quite simple. First, the string d determines the directory where you want to search for files. fullfile is used to construct your path by parts. The reason why this is important is because this allows the code to be platform agnostic. The delineation to separate between directories is different between operating systems. For example, in Windows the character is \ while on Mac OS and Linux, it's /. I don't know which platform you're running so fullfile is going to be useful here. Simply take each part of your directory and put them in as separate strings into fullfile.
Now, use dir to find all files in this directory of your choice. Replace the /path/to/folder/here with your desired path. Next, we iterate over all of the files. For each file, we get the relative filename. dir contains information about each file, and the field you want that is most important is the name attribute. However, this attribute is relative, which means that only the filename itself, without the full path to where this file is stored is given. After, we use regexprep as you have already done to replace any instances of -2 with nothing.
The next point is important. After we try and change the filename, if the file isn't the same, we need to create a new file by simply copying the old file to a new file of the changed name and we delete the old file. The function fullfile here helps establish absolute paths to where your file is located in the off-chance that are you running this script in a directory that doesn't include the files you're looking for.
We use fullfile to find the absolute paths to both the old and new file, use movefile to create the new file and delete to delete the old file.

possible to extract files according filename listed in a text file by using matlab?

i have thousand files in a folder, however, i only need to extract out hundred files from the folder according to the filename listed in a text file into new folder. The filenames in text file is listed as a column..is that possible to be run by using matlab?what is the code shall i need to write? Thanks.
example:
filenames.txt is in the C:\matlab
folder include thousand files is named as BigFiles also in C:\matlab
files to be extracted from BigFiles folder is listed in column as below:
filenames.txt
a1sndh
sd3rfe
rgd4de
sd5erw
please advise...thanks...
Enumerate all files in a folder of a specific type (if needed) using:
%main directory to process
directory = 'to_process';
%enumerate all files (.m in this case)
files = dir(fullfile(directory,'*.m'));
numfiles = length(files);
fprintf('Found %i files\n',numfiles)
Then you could load the single column using one of the many file I/O functions in Matlab.
Then just loop through all the input names and check it's name against all the read in files (files{i}.name), and if so, move it.
EDIT:
From what I understood, you are looking for a solution along the lines:
filenames.txt
a.txt
b.txt
c.txt
.
.
.
moveMyFiles.m
%# read filenames listed in a text file
fid = fopen('C:\matlab\filenames.txt');
fList = textscan(fid, '%s');
fList = fList{1};
fclose(fid);
%# source/destination folder names
sourceDir = 'C:\matlab\BigFiles';
destDir = 'C:\matlab\out';
if ~exist(destDir,'dir')
mkdir(destDir);
end
%# move files one by one
for i=1:numel(fList)
movefile(fullfile(sourceDir,fList{i}), fullfile(destDir,fList{i}));
end
You can replace the MOVEFILE function by COPYFILE if you simply want to copy the files instead of moving them...