load files from subdirectories

I am trying to open file BG.mat, which is present in most of the subfolders. And i want to load contents of this file in workspace. I tried using the following code, its second last line is giving me problem. Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks

filetofind = 'BG.mat';
dirinfo = dir();
dirinfo(~[dirinfo.isdir]) = [];  %remove non-directories
tf = ismember( {dirinfo.name}, {'.', '..'});
dirinfo(tf) = [];  %remove current and parent directory.
numsubdir = length(dirinfo);
lastmod = inf * ones(numsubdir,1);
for K = 1 : numsubdir
  subdirinfo = dir(fullfile(dirinfo(K).name, filetofind));
  load subdirinfo.name
 end

[Jan]

I have formatted your code. Please apply code formatting in your posts. Thanks.

Please do not post, that is is "giving you a problem", but post the error message or explain the difference between the results and your expectations.

Answer 1

[Jan]

Although I have to guess the error message, this command does not do what you expect:

load subdirinfo.name

This loads the file 'subdirinfo.name', but you want to load the file, whose name is stored in this variable:

load(subdirinfo.name);

Some minutes ago I've mentioned, that the number of users suffering under the non-functional form of SAVE (and LOAD) is decreasing. But now this confusing feature hit another user.

Remark: Loading MAT files directly to the workspace might cause serious bugs. Imagine a MAT file contains a variable called 'dirinfo'. Then the program will fail with an error (if you are lucky), or perform unwanted actions. It is much safer to catch the output in an array or struct:

Data{k} = load(...)

[Abdul Rauf Anwar]

Hi Jan Simon Thanks for your reply. i will keep this in mind. I used the following code after incorporating your suggestion but i am still facing the error. Let me explain what i expect the code the do. I have BG.mat in all subfolders. What i want this code to do is to locate BG.mat from all subfolders of current directory, load it so that i can plot its contents in different subplots. This is the code i used

filetofind = 'BG.mat';
dirinfo = dir();
dirinfo(~[dirinfo.isdir]) = [];  %remove non-directories
tf = ismember( {dirinfo.name}, {'.', '..'});
dirinfo(tf) = [];  %remove current and parent directory.
numsubdir = length(dirinfo);
lastmod = inf * ones(numsubdir,1);
for K = 1 : numsubdir
  subdirinfo = dir(fullfile(dirinfo(K).name, filetofind));
  load(subdirinfo.name);
 end

Error message i get it is as follows

??? Error using ==> load Unable to read file BG.mat: No such file or directory.

Error in ==> test189 at 24 load(subdirinfo.name);

And what exactly are contents of subdirinfo are as below:

>> subdirinfo

subdirinfo =

       name: 'BG.mat'
       date: '04-Mrz-2013 12:54:23'
      bytes: 367989
      isdir: 0
    datenum: 7.3530e+005

>> subdirinfo.name

ans =

BG.mat

>>

Thanks in antcipation for any help.

[Jan]

Nicer:

inf(numsubdir,1);   % Instead of: inf * ones(numsubdir,1);

The load() command requires the full path of the MAT file, otherwise it searches in the current directory.

for K = 1 : numsubdir
  load(fullfile(dirinfo(K).name, filetofind));
end

Answer 2

[Lauryn Hoch]

Your use of ismember is returning folders that are only named . and .. (the current and parent directory). tf is a logical array with two 'true' elements and everything else is false, which means you are not searching through real folders to find your file.