Assigning file name as variable name

Hi everyone,

I would like to write a program. The program must ask users to enter the name of the text we're importing and change the variable name each time. The code I wrote is below:

name = input('Enter the name of a file: ','s');
s=importdata('name.txt');
data=s.data
t_name=data(:,1);
mass_name=data(:,4);
dtg_name=data(:,7);
[ax,p1,p2]=plotyy(t_name,mass_name, t_name,dtg_name,'plot','plot')

I have mainly 2 problems. Importing file from the code generated by input command and assigning t_name, dtg_name etc. variables each time. How can I fix it?

Thank you for your help

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

Try this:

% Have user browse for a file, from a specified "starting folder."
% For convenience in browsing, set a starting folder from which to browse.
startingFolder = 'C:\Program Files\MATLAB';
if ~exist(startingFolder, 'dir')
  % If that folder doesn't exist, just start in the current folder.
  startingFolder = pwd;
end
% Get the name of the file that the user wants to use.
defaultFileName = fullfile(startingFolder, '*.*');
[baseFileName, folder] = uigetfile(defaultFileName, 'Select a file');
if baseFileName == 0
  % User clicked the Cancel button.
  return;
end
fullFileName = fullfile(folder, baseFileName)
s=importdata(fullFileName);

[Burak Dermenci]

This is not what I asked but exactly what I want.

Thank you for your reply

[Image Analyst]

If the importdata() is not working with your data, then you can try another input option like csvread(), textscan(), or whatever, or else write your own custom reading function.

Answer 2

[Titus Edelhofer]

Hi,

you should use name as a variablename to importdata:

name = input('Enter the name of a file: ','s');
s=importdata(name);

Titus

[Burak Dermenci]

I tried this and it gives error:

Unable to load file.
Use TEXTSCAN or FREAD for more complex formats.
Caused by:
    Error using fread
    Invalid file identifier.  Use fopen to generate a valid file identifier.