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matlabvectormatlab-struct

Extracting a vector from a struct

I got a struct after using dir(directoryName). I want to get a vector containing all the file names in that folder.

  • How do I extract a vector of names from the struct?
  • Is there a better way to get a vector with the names of all files in a directory?
Solution

  • Here's how you can do this:

    dirData = dir(directoryName);
fileNames = {dirData(~[dirData.isdir]).name};

    This works by making use of comma-separated lists. When you have a structure array and you index a field with the dot operator, you get a comma-separated list of values that you can then pass to a function or collect with square or curly brackets. This code:

    ...[dirData.isdir]...

    Collects the isdir field from every structure in the array, putting the values in a vector using square brackets so it can be used as a logical index. Then this code:

    ... {dirData(...).name};

    Collects the name field from every structure in the array, putting the strings in a cell array.