How to change file extension via matlab?

Hello,

I have a question. I would like to change the extension of several files. I mean that in one directory a I have many files in type file1.out., file2.out ,..., file600.out.

I would like to rename these files to *.txt (I mean file1.txt, file2.txt,...., file600.txt) in this directory with one command via matlab?

Could anyone help me?

Answer 1

[Adam Danz]

This shows how to

1. List all files in a given directory with the extension .out
2. Copy the file and rename the extention .txt
3. Delete the .out file (commented out)

% Enter the directory to search
directory = 'C:\Users\name\Documents\MATLAB';
% List all .out files
fileList = dir([directory, '\*.out']); 

% Loop through each .out file, copy it and give new extension: .txt
for i = 1:numel(fileList)
    file = fullfile(directory, fileList(i).name);
    [tempDir, tempFile] = fileparts(file); 
    status = copyfile(file, fullfile(tempDir, [tempFile, '.txt']))
    % Delete the .out file; but don't do this until you've backed up your data!!
    % delete(file)  
end

*Not tested

[Ivan Mich]

Excuse me, I have tried your solution but command window shows me :

Error in (line 11)
for i = 1:numel(fileLIst)

Do you know why?

[Adam Danz]

Whenever you share an error message, please share the entire copy-pasted error message.

Note the typo in my answer (which I'll fix now). In that line, the I is capitalized (fileLIst) and it shouldn't be.

Also, whenever you're trying new code, take time to look at it and understand what each line is doing, especially for really short pieces of code like the one in my answer. Also take time to think about what the error message is telling you. In this case, the error message likely indicated that the variable fileLIst didn't exist and you could have caught the typo.

[Pedro Barba]

Shouldn't it be "fileList(i).name" instead of "fileList(1).name" ?

[Adam Danz]

Thanks Pedro, fixed.

[Emmagnio Desir]

thank you, working for me

Answer 2

[Femke Cappon]

Thank you, I have used to code to rewrite LabVIEW .lvm files to .txt

Answer 3

[Musaddiq Al Ali]

Mr. Adam Danz's code is vey nice and neat. I like it. I would like to suggest, to add '\' to the secound lines of the code:-

fileList = dir([directory,'\','*.out']);

[Stephen23]

Even better would be to use the correct function for the job:

fileList = dir(fullfile(directory,'*.out'));

[Adam Danz]

thanks, corrected.