finding simillar folders (size and number of files anf files name)

In an specified folder there are some folders for example in these names:a,b,c,d,e,f,... .In each of these folders also there are some .xls files. Sometimes same .xls files are inside some of them. for example the same .xls files that are inside 'a', there are also in folder 'd' too. (exactly the same names and size and numbers of .xls files).

now its needed finding these similar folders that inside them are the same. and then renaming one of them to '(numbers of .xls file)' and deleting others similar. for example inside of 'a','f','e','w','f','c' are same and inside of these are the same 16 .xls files. it's needed deleting 'f','e','w','f','c'. then renaming 'a' to '(16)'

we could determine these similar folders from the size of them also and i think this is the simplest way (but not accurate because maybe exist 2 folder in same size but not same inside)

[Jan]

What exactly is the size of a folder? Are you looking for similar or equal files? Would a checksum of the files or of all files insider a folder (and subfolders?) help?

[mohammad]

I am looking for equal folders that all files inside a folder to be same (equal) with all files of an another folder.

Answer 1

[Jan]

Usually files are compared using checksums, e.g. FEX: CalcMD5.

[EDITED]: You can use FEX: DataHash for the struct replied by DIR:

aDir     = dir(FolderName);
isFile   = not([aDir.isdir]);
fileSize = [aDir(isFile).size];
Hash     = DataHash(sort(fileSize));

Now the number of the files is considered also and the sizes of the different files. It would be more accurate to use the names and dates also:

aDir   = dir(FolderName);
isFile = not([aDir.isdir]);
Hash   = DataHash(aDir(isFile));

Now you can store a list of already occurred Hash values in a cell string and if any(strcmp(Hash, HashList)) is TRUE, delete the folder, if FALSE rename it.

[mohammad]

thanks a lot Jan

i think best way to do this case is comparing size of folders (summing all files size that are in a folder). could you help me in this way please?

[Jan]

@Mohammad: Are you sure? Then two files with 1037 bytes are considered to be equal, and two folder when one contain a file with 1037 bytes, and the other 3 files with 500, 400 and 137 bytes.

[mohammad]

thanks, no i am not sure ;)

i told because speed of comparing these folders is very important for me and because of this i suggested that

thanks a lot

let me check your answer

[Jan]

In general validity is more important than speed. Creating a wrong result with a high speed will lead to troubles, creating a correct result slowly will increase the consumption of coffee.