How to delete empty files/spreadsheets in a directory ?

Hello,

I have a directory with milions of .xlsx files. The point is that I want to remove empty files. Is there a way to do it using a command in matlab? Instead of the fact that these files are empty, they have 10kb.

Could you please help me?

[Walter Roberson]

data = {};
writecell(data, 'test.xlsx');
!ls -l test.xlsx

-rw-r--r-- 1 mluser worker 2053 Mar  4 20:15 test.xlsx

If I understand correctly, you are indicating that the files have no visible content, but still take up about 10 kb of space.

If so then that would suggest that they might have template or macro material written into them, or might have additional sheets.

How do you want to decide whether a particular spreedsheet is empty enough for your purposes?

[Ivan Mich]

If I open some files the have one line of data, whereas some somes have no data.

The .xlsx files are outcome of a loop which creates multiple files.

I am importing you two examples of files (one empty and one with data)

[Walter Roberson]

To clarify:

Files that have only one line of data should be deleted, but files that have more than one line of data should not be deleted?

[Ivan Mich]

I should delete files that have no line of data (see the format of the EMPTY.xlsx' file I uploaded) and I should keep files that have one or more than one line of data.

Did you understand?

Answer 1

[Ivan Mich]

After your suggestions I wrote finally this script that works

clc
clear

% C = readcell('EMPTY.xlsx');
% isempty(C)

emptyfiles=dir('*xlsx')

for k=1:numel(emptyfiles)
    emptynew=emptyfiles(k).name
[STATUS, SHEETS] = xlsfinfo(emptynew);
% if length(SHEETS) > 1; next; end    %assume multiple sheet files are special
C = readcell(emptynew, 'sheet', SHEETS{1});
if isempty(C);
    delete(emptynew); 
end
end

[Fangjun Jiang]

This script won't work, if you've run it!

[Ivan Mich]

I modify it. Now it works. I have one question. If I want to specify it in order to delete files that have empty only the second column how could I make it? I mean one file that has only the first column with data and all the others are empty how could this file be deleted , after a code modification?

Thank you in advance

[Walter Roberson]

if isempty(C) || size(C,2) < 2
    delete(emptynew);
end

[Ivan Mich]

Ok, one last question. Can I delete files that have only 1 row and one column empty (I mean 1x1 double) and keep all the other files?

[Walter Roberson]

if size(C,1) == 1 && size(C,2) == 1
    delete(emptynew);
end

Answer 2

[Fangjun Jiang]

1. run [STATUS,SHEETS] = xlsfinfo(FILENAME). Most likely, it will tell you there is only one sheet
2. run [NUM,TXT,RAW]=xlsread(FILENAME). Most likely, isempty(NUM) and isempty(TXT) are both true
3. delete(FILENAME)

[Walter Roberson]

Alternative to the second step:

C = readcell(FILENAME);
isempty(C)

For example,

[STATUS, SHEETS] = xlsfinfo(FILENAME);
if length(SHEETS) > 1; next; end    %assume multiple sheet files are special
C = readcell(FILENAME, 'sheet', SHEETS{1});
if isempty(C); delete(FILENAME); end

[Ivan Mich]

I run this code after your suggestions:

[STATUS, SHEETS] = xlsfinfo('*.xlsx');
if length(SHEETS) > 1; next; end    %assume multiple sheet files are special
C = readcell('*.xlsx', 'sheet', SHEETS{1});
if isempty(C); delete('*.xlsx'); end

BUT NO USE!

Do you know why?