renaming a lot of folders automatically by MATLAB
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It's needed renaming 150 folders depends on numbers of .xls files inside their contents for example inside folder 'a' there are 15 .xls files so needed be renamed to 'a(15)' and in folder 'b' there are 45 .xls file so its needed renaming it to 'b(45)' and so on.but this must happen by using for-loop. by using this function names of folder is gathered : http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/30835-getcontents
but is there any command for renaming a folder?(not file) and how could for-loop be wrote?
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Accepted Answer
Jan
on 20 Sep 2011
Folders can be renamed using MOVEFILE.
The FOR loop without GETCONTENTS (which I do not know):
ADir = dir(PathName);
ADir = ADir([ADir.isdir]);
AName = {ADir.name};
AName(strncmp(AName, '.', 1)) = [];
for iFolder = 1:numel(AName)
APath = fullfile(PathName, AName{iFolder});
BDir = dir(fullfile(APath, '*.xls'));
newName = sprintf('%s(%d)', AName{iFolder}, numel(BDir));
movefile(APath, fullfile(PathName, newName));
end
More Answers (1)
Tigersnooze
on 20 Sep 2011
Assuming you have the names of all of the folders in question, try something like:
for i = 1:length(directories)
cd(directories(i));
xlsFiles = dir('*.xls');
num_xlsFiles = length(dir.name);
system(['mv ' directories(i) ' ' directories(i) '(' num2str(num_xlsFiles) ')']);
end
That also assumes you're on a Linux/UNIX machine. If you're on Windows, replace "mv" in the system command with "move" (at least I think that's the Windows equivalent). I think that should work.
3 Comments
Jan
on 20 Sep 2011
f "directories" is a cell string, you need curly braces in the CD and SYSTEM command. You need to convert num_xlsFiles to a string before you can use it to create the new folder name, e.g. by using SPRINTF or NUM2STR.
Matlab's built-in command MOVEFILE works on all platforms and is much faster than forwarding a string to the operating system.
Tigersnooze
on 20 Sep 2011
Realized the num2str mistake just after posting and remedied that. Also forgot about the movefile command, but listed the syntax for that in my comment. Not sure about the format of "directories," since I made it up, but I suppose it might be a cell array.
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