File names

I have a script that is asking me what files should it manipulate.

the two categories of files are

Hello1_14022011_1_XV_xls and Hello1_14022011_1_SF_XV_xls

when the question arise (so that the program can make the directory of all the files and manipulate them) in the program i put Hello1_****2011_*_XV_xls for the first category. The problem is that the fifth * will make the program to understand both the categories.

Is there a a way to stop the name reading at those situations?

Thanks

Answer 1

[Daniel Shub]

What about using '?' instead of '*', and why do you have '****', are you sure you don't want that to be ????

[Daniel Shub]

Look at that, I have no idea how to make **** not bold

[Alexandros]

With ? it doesnt work

I am sure is ****

I will try with strfind and I will report back here

[Walter Roberson]

Fixed, Daniel.

[Daniel Shub]

What are you using to do the wildcard expansion? I am surprised that '?' doesn't work. Can you replace the four * with just 1?

[Alexandros]

The problem is not the four **** is the fifth * which takes everything until it gets to XV

[Daniel Shub]

Thats my point, generally, "*" represents any sequence of characters (with the possible exception of a ".") while "?" represents a single character. For any wildcard expansion system I can think of "****" is the same as "*". The solution is going to depend on how you are doing the wildcard expansion.

[Alexandros]

Yes I completely agree with you. But MatLab doesn't understand ? as a wild card when the program ask me the question.

Should I put ' ' around the ?

In the other hand I have made a if loop with strfind

if strfind(file, '_SF_')>0

delete than file from the list

end

But how I will delete the file from the list?

[Alexandros]

if strfind(file '_SF_')>0

list1(file).name = []

end

this will make me the same size list but without the name. How can i cut the list only with the names i need ? I don't know if I am very clear if you need more info tell me

[Daniel Shub]

I think your best bet is to look at the script and figure out how it is doing the wildcard expansion. Without that I cannot help answer your question any more than I have. The question about how to remove the field from your struct array is a new question. Ideally, this would be asked as a new question with the relevant details. You will get more (and better) feedback and it will help others in the future find the question. I think the answer you are looking for is: list1(file) = []; (note I intentionally left out the ".name" part.

[Image Analyst]

for k = 1 : numberOfFiles

if strfind(list1(k).name, '_SF_') <= 0

% No SF in the name

% Do stuff

else

% Has SF, so do nothing or do other stuff.

end

end

Answer 2

[Image Analyst]

Use strfind(filename, '_SF_') to determine if your filename belongs to the second category. Then only process the filename of the category you're interested in.