System('cp'... ) cant find the existing file: "no such file or directory"

using the for loop below returns "no such file or directory". I ran the matlab script in the folder, with and without the path. I also ran the program out of the folder with the below path, and still recieved the same message. The file definitely exsist and is within the directory. I am using a MAC and MATLABR2022a. Thanks for the help!

for i= 1:length(chr)
    structvariableA=dir([station '.channel.' chr(i,1:7) '*.SAC'])     
    if str2num(charvariableA(a,1:6)) > str2num(stringvariable(i,3:8))
        a = a +1 
        fldtfID = system(['cp -R ' '~/Desktop/Folder/Datafolder/subdatafolder/' structvariableA.name  ' ' charvariableA(a,1:12) 'x.' lower(charvariable) 'e'])
    else
        fldtfID = system(['cp -R ' '~/Desktop/Folder/Datafolder/subdatafolder/' structvariableA.name  ' ' charvariableA(a,1:12) 'x.' lower(charvariable) 'e'])
    end
end

[dpb]

for i= 1:length(chr)
    structvariableA=dir([station '.channel.' chr(i,1:7) '*.SAC'])     
    if str2num(charvariableA(a,1:6)) > str2num(stringvariable(i,3:8))
        a = a +1 
        fldtfID = system(['cp -R ' '~/Desktop/Folder/Datafolder/subdatafolder/' structvariableA.name  ' ' charvariableA(a,1:12) 'x.' lower(charvariable) 'e'])
    else
        fldtfID = system(['cp -R ' '~/Desktop/Folder/Datafolder/subdatafolder/' structvariableA.name  ' ' charvariableA(a,1:12) 'x.' lower(charvariable) 'e'])
    end
end

Unrecognized function or variable 'chr'.

Just for starters...none of the other variables are defined, either, so nobody here can tell what the actual strings that you're building are to even guess if there's a syntax or similar issue with badly formed filenames.

Then there's the issue of whether those contain valid numeric substrings or not and that in the if construct it doesn't appear that in

fldtfID = system(['cp -R ' '~/Desktop/Folder/Datafolder/subdatafolder/' structvariableA.name  ' ' charvariableA(a,1:12) 'x.' lower(charvariable) 'e'])
fldtfID = system(['cp -R ' '~/Desktop/Folder/Datafolder/subdatafolder/' structvariableA.name  ' ' charvariableA(a,1:12) 'x.' lower(charvariable) 'e'])

there's anything different at all in the two cases so why have them? -- although there is something funky going on with respect to not incrementing a for some reason. But, that would be the only thing the if would be needed for as written.

Use the debugger and check what you're creating there -- undoubtedly it isn't what you think it is.

fullfile to build a file string and simplifying the smaller sub-pieces would go a long way to making the code easier to read and probably debug as well.

[D.geo]

Thank you for the reply! let me clarify.... total copies in original data is 7,393. I am trying to scale the example down to just one copy, which still receives the same error.

charvariableA='1234';
stringvariable="1235";
a=1;
for i= 1%:length(charvariableA)
    %%find the exact file name in directory 
    structvariableA=dir(['ABC' '.HHE.' charvariableA '*.SAC']) 
    %find exact file name and rename if value is greater than stringvariable move to next number  
    if str2num(charvariableA(a,1:4)) > str2num(stringvariable(i,1:1)) 
        a = a +1 
        %file exact file name and rename if value is greater than stringvariable move to %next number (a=a+1)      
        fldtfID = system(['cp -R ' '~/Desktop/Folder/Datafolder/subdatafolder/' structvariableA.name  ' ' charvariableA(a,1:4) 'x.' lower('ABC') 'e']) 
    else
        %%copy %file exact file name and rename 
        fldtfID = system(['cp -R ' '~/Desktop/Folder/Datafolder/subdatafolder/' structvariableA.name  ' ' charvariableA(a,1:4) 'x.' lower('ABC') 'e']) 
    end
end

[the cyclist]

Similar to what @dpb is suggesting, I would debug by trying to isolate the different parts of this that could be going wrong.

First, I would try to do a simpler system call, where you are not using the constructed character array. For example, perhaps just

system(['ls ~/Desktop/Folder/Datafolder/subdatafolder/')

to see if this finds the directory. Then, perhaps do the same with one of the filenames.

Next I would see if

['cp -R ' '~/Desktop/Folder/Datafolder/subdatafolder/' structvariableA.name  ' ' charvariableA(a,1:4) 'x.' lower('ABC') 'e']

really does result in the string you expect. That's a complicated construction, and it would be easy to make a mistake.

[dpb]

charvariableA='1234';
stringvariable="1235";
a=1;
for i= 1:length(charvariableA)
    %%find the exact file name in directory 
    fname=['ABC' '.HHE.' charvariableA '*.SAC']
%     structvariableA=dir(fname);
%     %find exact file name and rename if value is greater than stringvariable move to next number  
%     if str2num(charvariableA(a,1:4)) > str2num(stringvariable(i,1:1)) 
%         a = a +1 
%         %file exact file name and rename if value is greater than stringvariable move to %next number (a=a+1)      
%         fldtfID = system(['cp -R ' '~/Desktop/Folder/Datafolder/subdatafolder/' structvariableA.name  ' ' charvariableA(a,1:4) 'x.' lower('ABC') 'e']) 
%     else
%         %%copy %file exact file name and rename 
%         fldtfID = system(['cp -R ' '~/Desktop/Folder/Datafolder/subdatafolder/' structvariableA.name  ' ' charvariableA(a,1:4) 'x.' lower('ABC') 'e']) 
%     end
end

fname = 'ABC.HHE.1234*.SAC'

fname = 'ABC.HHE.1234*.SAC'

fname = 'ABC.HHE.1234*.SAC'

fname = 'ABC.HHE.1234*.SAC'

Show that the first filename you're trying to find is the same thing for all passes thru the loop. Why are you doing this? You'll not get any different result than the first instance.

There's no folder defined for that search; unless those files are in the current working directory the result of the dir() search will be null.

We, of course, can't see your terminal from here so we have no way to know what the file structure/location really is...but in these cases it's almost always not using a fully-qualified filename for the open or in this case for the wildcard pattern name in the dir() call.

[D.geo]

Thank you, the suggestions has been helpful so far.

I am using the loop because the nature of the files, each file is a trace for 1 of 3 components starting at the same time... These points are true below

1. FIle exist in ~/Desktop/Folder/Datafolder/subdatafolder/
2. program is ran in ~/Desktop/Folder/Datafolder/subdatafolder/
3. I removed 2 components and simplified the variables

In this downscaled example, I am searching for component E at the time, 1234. I am using the for loop in this example to show that I am using a for loop in my larger scale code. In this example code, I am expecting one file to be copied.... 'ABC.HHE.1234*.SAC'... if the file is the same for all iterations as we can agree, then why is the file not being found if it is in the directory where the code is ran?

if I run a basic copy

system(['cp -R' ' station.HHE.1234.SAC' ' test.sac'])

the copy works...

worked on it and...

Now i inserted this syntax into the forloop and the cp works! Thanks for the insight

now my next step is to move files using the same system()...

the issue here I noticed is how I am using directories, How should I use the syntax to move my file to a new directory using system (['mv file' ' to/the/dir/I/want/'])!

This has been helpful!

[dpb]

I "know nuthink!" about MAC OS/Linux/derivatives, but I presume like the other OS if one uses a directory as a target, it will copy to that location.

However, it would seem simpler to not have to build the OS command but to use the MATLAB built in movefile which works that way and also without building the string commands but with inherent MATLAB variables.

[Jan]

Are you sure, that "~/Desktop/Folder/Datafolder/subdatafolder/" is the current folder in Matlab? Prefer to work with absolute paths instead:

folder = '~/Desktop/Folder/Datafolder/subdatafolder/';
...
    structvariableA = dir(fullfile(folder, [station '.channel.' chr(i,1:7) '*.SAC']));

The rest of the code looks very artificial: The names of the variables, the mixing of CHAR and string types, an IF/ELSE, which calls the same command in both branches, using a SYSTEM call instead of the built-in movefile (as dpb has mentioned)? Is this an experiment or used for productive work?