accessing same file names in two different directories for comparison

Please let me know if there is a better title or way to ask this question. I don't believe I know the proper jargon.

I have some code that opens 10 folders called Plane1-Plane10 within a current directory called 'allwork/FillF3'. Each Plane* contains a text file called Data.txt:

proot='Plane*';% FOLDER template
hroot='Data.txt'; % FILENAME template

% directory engine 
d=dir(proot);
d={d([d.isdir]).name}.';
hnam=cellfun(@(x) sprintf('%s%s%s',x,filesep,hroot),d,'uni',false);
for i=1:m
     hfile=hnam{i};
     disp(sprintf('working on file %s',hfile));
hnam{i}=importdata(hfile); % code to read contents of CFILE

Now, what I want to do is use this code for two working directories 'allwork/FillF3' AND 'neutral/FillF3'. so I can plot and compare the data from hnam{i} agains one another. How can I modify my folder template to do so? Here is what I tried with 'allwork/FillF3' AND 'neutral/FillF3' in a current working directory called 'testdir':

proot='neutral/FillF3/Plane*';% FOLDER template
proot2='allwork/FillF3/Plane*';% FOLDER template
hroot='Data.txt'; % FILENAME template

% directory engine 
d=dir(proot);
d2=dir(proot2);

d={d([d.isdir]).name}.';
d2={d2([d2.isdir]).name}.';

m=length(d);
m2=length(d);

hnam=cellfun(@(x) sprintf('%s%s%s',x,filesep,hroot),d,'uni',false);
hnam2=cellfun(@(x) sprintf('%s%s%s',x,filesep,hroot),d2,'uni',false);

for i=1:m
     hfile=hnam{i};
     hfile2=hnam2{i};
     disp(sprintf('working on file %s',hfile));
     disp(sprintf('working on file %s',hfile2));
hnam{i}=importdata(hfile); % code to read contents of CFILE
hnam2{i}=importdata(hfile2); % code to read contents of CFILE
end

Cheers,

Alex

[Greg]

What release of MATLAB are you running?

Also, are you having an actual problem? We don't know what to look at; all you said was "I tried this..."

[Alex]

R2010A Student on my home PC although when I posted this I was on the university machine and don't know offhand what version they use.

working on file Plane1\Data.txt working on file Plane1\Data.txt ??? Error using ==> importdata at 136 Unable to open file.

Error in ==> Compare_ADSB_AIS_APRS at 66 hnam{i}=importdata(hfile); % code to read contents of CFILE

[Alex]

I just ran it again and hfile is currently 'Plane2\Data.txt', but should be 'neutral\FillF3\Plane2\Data.txt' so I guess line

   hnam=cellfun(@(x) sprintf('%s%s%s',x,filesep,hroot),d,'uni',false);

[Greg]

Ahh, R2016b introduced recursive dir. Would greatly simplify your code.

Answer 1

[Jan]

The anonymous functions are more complicated than useful here. Try this:

Folder1  = 'neutral/FillF3/Plane*';% FOLDER template
Folder2  = 'allwork/FillF3/Plane*';% FOLDER template
FileName = 'Data.txt'; % FILENAME template

DirList1 = dir(Folder1);
DirList2 = dir(proot2);

SubFolderIndex1 = find([DirList1.isdir]);
SubFolderIndex2 = find([DirList2.isdir]);

nSubFolder = length(SubFolderIndex1);
for iSub = 1:numel(SubFolderIndex1)
   sub1  = SubFolderIndex1(iSub);
   File1 = fullfile(DirList1(iSub).folder, DirList1(iSub).name, FileName);
   sub2  = SubFolderIndex2(iSub);
   File2 = fullfile(DirList2(iSub).folder, DirList2(iSub).name, FileName);
   ...

Does this match your needs? fullfile performs the concatenation dynamically inside the loop.

[Alex]

Not quite, but close:

??? Reference to non-existent field 'folder'.

[Alex]

Got it working though using your suggestion:

proot2='allwork/FillF3/Plane*';% FOLDER template
Folder1 = 'neutral/FillF3/Plane*';% FOLDER template
Folder2 = 'allwork/FillF3/Plane*';% FOLDER template
folder1 = 'neutral/FillF3/';% FOLDER template
folder2 = 'nallwork/FillF3/';% FOLDER template

FileName = 'Data.txt'; % FILENAME template
DirList1 = dir(Folder1 );
DirList2 = dir(proot2);
SubFolderIndex1 = find([DirList1.isdir ]);
SubFolderIndex2 = find([DirList2.isdir]);
nSubFolder = length(SubFolderIndex1 );
for iSub = 1:numel(SubFolderIndex1 )
sub1 = SubFolderIndex1(iSub );
File1 = fullfile(folder1, DirList1(iSub).name, FileName );
sub2 = SubFolderIndex2(iSub );
File2 = fullfile(folder2, DirList2(iSub).name, FileName );
hnam{iSub}=importdata(File1); % code to read contents of CFILE
end

Thank you for your help!

[Jan]

@Alex: I have overseen, that you use R2010A. The .folder fields is replied by dir() in modern Matlab versions only.