Reading huge number of excel files in a loop

Hi!

I have 1090 .csv files to read. What I am trying to accomplish is compare column 1 from each of those Excel files and then extract the elements common in that column across all the 1090 .csv files. Since MATLAB does not already have a function to intersect multiple vectors, I am using the MINTERSECT function I found here ( https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/6144-mintersect-multiple-set-intersection ).

The problem I am encountering is that the number of arguments for this function is HUGE in my case! Even if it is a lot, I can definitely mention all the vector names in the argument, that's not difficult. But before doing that I need to read all the 1090 .csv files and extract the column 1 elements and store it in a different vector with a different name corresponding to each .csv file. I was trying to do this using a FOR loop but I am not able to do it.

Can someone please help? Please let me know if you need any more clarification from me.

[jonas]

Why were you not able to do it with a for loop? You don't have to keep all files in the memory if that's the problem (as implied by huge in title). You can intersect them in batches.

Answer 1

[dpb]

All that function is is a loop around intersect one vector at a time; that's all you need must do, there's no need to put all the variables into the argument list at all, just start with the first and rinse and repeat 'til done.