copy a string from filename and detect a new file in the folder

Hi,

I have a list of files like that :

data_acc_13042012.mat
data_acc_15042012.mat
data_acc_25042012.mat
data_acc_02052012.mat

the numbers correspond to date, for ex : 13/04/2012

Firstly,I would like to extract only the numbers in the filename and save them to a vector "date". Then I will display my data following this vector "date".

Secondly, for each time I run my code, I would like to detect if a new data file is added, for ex : data_acc_10052012.mat, etc. If yes, I redo the extraction of date and add it to the vector "date".

May anyone have an idea to do all these things please ?

Thanks for all your answers

Winn

[Jan]

As usual it would be helpful if you show, what you have tried so far. I could imagine, that you have at least some lines of the code including the DIR command. If you post this, our suggestion could match your code.

Answer 1

[Jan]

function ShowFiles(Folder)
persistent shownAlready
list = dir(fullfile(Folder, '*.mat'));
name = {list.name};

if ~isempty(shownAlready)
  name_bak     = name;
  name         = setdiff(name, shownAlready);
  shownAlready = name_bak;
end

blockStr = sprintf('%s;', name{:});
number   = sscanf(blockStr, 'data_acc_%2d%2d%4d.mat;');
dateV    = transpose(reshape(number, 3, []));
dateD    = datenum(dateV(:, 3), dateV(:, 2), dateV(:, 1));
[dum, order] = sort(dateD);

for i = order
  <do something with the file: fullfile(Folder, name{i})>
end

[Win co]

It works greatly your code. It's very kind of you to help me.

Thank you very much