Sorting a directory of txt files.

Hello, I am trying to sort out a list of txt files I have in a certain directory, so they can be loaded in order one at a time. For example, in my directory are a numerically ordered list of txt files: 800.txt,900.txt,1000.txt,1200.txt,total.txt,etc.

I want to load just the number files in ascending order. I noticed that just using the ls command directory will sort out by the first numerical digit, not taking account of the digits, and therefore not making it truly numerically ascending.

Here is the portion of the code I am running:

cd('c:\directory');
list=ls('*.txt') 

%this is the routine to load the txt file itself. in example, the fifth file.
y=load(list(5,:));

I read up on this article involving the ASCII ascending and how a separate routine needs to be separately written to manually ascend it. However, this method will involve the creation of a cell array, and the load command didn't work on the file list generated: http://www.mathworks.com/support/solutions/en/data/1-OGU22/index.html?product=ML

Any help involving this problem will be appreciated. Thanks

[Samuel]

any help?

[Stephen23]

My FEX submission natsortfiles was written to deal with this exact problem:

>> S = dir('*.txt');
>> S.name
ans =
    '1.txt'
ans =
    '10.txt'
ans =
    '2.txt'
>> S = natsortfiles(S); % alphanumeric sort by filename
>> S.name
ans =
    '1.txt'
ans =
    '2.txt'
ans =
    '10.txt'

Answer 1

[Yao Li]

Implement dir to list all the file names in the specific directory.

Use if-else to find the number files (char(48) to char(57))

Implement sort(xxx,'ascend') to sort the elements in ascending order

Answer 2

[Jan]

list = dir(fullfile(C:\directory', '*.txt'));
list = list(~[list.isdir]);  % Exclude folder with matching name
name = {list.name};
str  = sprintf(name, '%s*');
num  = sscanf(str, '%d*');
[dummy, index] = sort(num);
name = name(index);   % Sorted numerically now
for iName = 1:length(name)
  y = load(name{iName});
  ...
end

Answer 3

[Stephen23]

My FEX submission natsortfiles was written to deal with this exact problem:

>> S = dir('*.txt');
>> S.name
ans =
    '1.txt'
ans =
    '10.txt'
ans =
    '2.txt'
>> S = natsortfiles(S); % alphanumeric sort by filename
>> S.name
ans =
    '1.txt'
ans =
    '2.txt'
ans =
    '10.txt'