Select multiple files in browser for conversion.

Hello, I have written a simple code for converting RGB bitmap's to 8 bit .bmp's and .pgm to 8 bit .bmp. The code is as follows,

clear all 
close all

% Prompt for image 
[image_file image_file_path image_file_filterindex] = uigetfile({'*.pgm;*.bmp'}, 'Select image for conversion to *.bmp')
% This breaks up the input file name (image_file) into the directory (pathstr)
% the file name without the extention (name) and extention (ext)
[pathstr, name, ext] = fileparts(image_file);
% Find file extensions (must be either bmp or pgm)
image_file_type=image_file(max(strfind(image_file, '.'))+1:end);

% Only performs conversion if correct file types given
if(image_file_type=='bmp') 
    image_data=imread([image_file_path image_file], image_file_type);
    image_data_n = rgb2gray(image_data);
    imwrite(image_data_n, [image_file_path name '.bmp'], 'bmp');
elseif (image_file_type=='pgm')
    image_data=imread([image_file_path image_file], image_file_type);
    imwrite(image_data, [image_file_path name '.bmp'], 'bmp');
end

It works as intended however I would like to be able to select multiple files in the initial browser window to be converted. I thought of writing a loop to call different files of a similar name however then I would have to change the name of the files, as the names are not necessarily similar.

So, how do i change the above code so that I can select multiple files for conversion?

Thank you for your time, BN

Answer 1

[Tom]

uigetfile({'*.pgm;*.bmp'}, 'Select image for conversion to *.bmp','MultiSelect','On')
which will give you a cell array of file names and paths

you can then run these in a loop, so

for n=1:length(image_file)
[pathstr, name, ext] = fileparts(image_file{n});
...
end

FYI there are a couple of bits in your code you can simplify, for example you've written:

image_file_type=image_file(max(strfind(image_file, '.'))+1:end);

when you essentially already have that as in the 'ext' variable.

[Brenden]

This works however now I cannot select one image file I must select >1 files.

[Tom]

is the problem that if you only select one then it's not in a cell?

if ~iscell(image_file)

image_file={image_file};

image_path={image_path};

end

[Brenden]

You got it! Thank you again, BN