Copy file to a new folder

Under a folder, I have a lot of .mat. "19800101.mat", "19800102.mat", ......."19800201.mat", "19800202.mat", ......"19801201.mat".... I want to copy "19800101.mat", "19800102.mat", and copy others which also belong to January to a new folder, and display this new folder directory. February to a another new folder, and so on. Thanks.

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

destdirs = {'January', 'February', 'March', ... 'December'};
ndests = length(destdirs);

for K = 1 : ndests
  if ~exist(destdirs{K}, 'dir'); mkdir(destdirs{K}); end
end

dinfo = dir('*.mat');
filenames = {dinfo.name};

%remove filenames that are not a 4 digit year followed by a 2 digit month followed by a
%2 digit day followed by .mat. Years starting in 0, 1, or 2 are accepted with this check

namebad = cellfun(@isempty, regexp(filenames, '[012]\d\d\d[01]\d\d\d\.mat$') );
filenames(namebad) = [];

nfiles = length(filenames);
for K = 1 : nfiles
   thisfile = filenames{K};
   monthnum = sscanf(thisfile, '%*4d%2d', 1);
   if monthnum > ndests
     fprintf('File has invalid month number, skipping "%s"\n', thisfile);
   else
     destdir = destdirs{monthnum};
     copyfile( thisfile, destdir );
   end
end

[Jason]

You are genius.

But if all my .mat is not in current directory, e.g, they are in 'C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2015b\bin\data'

How do I change following code?

"dinfo = dir('*.mat');"

I change to following one, but not working.

dinfo = dir('C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2015b\bin\data\*.mat');

[Walter Roberson]

projectdir = 'C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2015b\bin\data';

destdirs = {'January', 'February', 'March', ... 'December'};
ndests = length(destdirs);

for K = 1 : ndests
  if ~exist(destdirs{K}, 'dir'); mkdir(destdirs{K}); end
end

dinfo = dir( fullfile(projectdir, '*.mat') );
filenames = {dinfo.name};

%remove filenames that are not a 4 digit year followed by a 2 digit month followed by a
%2 digit day followed by .mat. Years starting in 0, 1, or 2 are accepted with this check

namebad = cellfun(@isempty, regexp(filenames, '[012]\d\d\d[01]\d\d\d\.mat$') );
filenames(namebad) = [];

nfiles = length(filenames);
for K = 1 : nfiles
   thisfile = filenames{K};
   monthnum = sscanf(thisfile, '%*4d%2d', 1);
   if monthnum > ndests
     fprintf('File has invalid month number, skipping "%s"\n', thisfile);
   else
     destdir = destdirs{monthnum};
     copyfile( fullfile(projectdir, thisfile), destdir );
   end
end

[Jason]

Thank you so so so much. It works for me now.

[Walter Roberson]

Please click to Accept the answer.

Answer 2

[John BG]

Hi Jason

one way to copy files is with command dos

path1='put here full destination path'   % for instance D:\Documents\backup\'
dos('copy file_name.mat path1')

If you find this answer of any help solving your question, please click on the thumbs-up vote link,

thanks in advance

John

[e-mail]

[Jason]

Thanks. But I do not think your code cannot work.

[Jan]

MAtlab's copyfile is more direct and faster than starting a DOS command. If there is really a reason to call DOS, use:

dos(['copy file_name.mat ', path1])

Answer 3

[Prajwol Tamrakar]

This issue of copying file to another directory is possibly due to "ready only access". Use 'f' option to override the read-only status of the destination folder.

copyfile(SourceFile, DestinyFile, 'f')