How to load .mat data from another folder?

Hey,

I have several mat files located in a folder called "matFile". the script is located in the uperfolder of this matFile folder. I mean Folder1 incluses the script and matFile folder. Using following lines I try to access to the mat files. Each mat file is a 1-by-190 cell array

matpath = 'C\...\matFile';
matfiles = dir(fullfile(matpath ,'*'));
N1 = setdiff({matfiles.name},{'.','..'});

then N1 give me all the data in matFile folder, i.e.,

{'time1.mat'} {'time2.mat'}  {'time3.mat'}  {'time4.mat'}  
{'location1.mat'}  {'location2.mat'}  {'location3.mat'}  {'location4.mat'}  
{'space1.mat'} {'space2.mat'} {'space3.mat'} {'space4.mat'}

However, when I call load(N1{1}) I got the error that this file is not in the directory. Any idea? Is there a way that I can load data in a for loop?

Thanks in advance!

[VBBV]

Try with

%if true
  load(cell2mat(N1(1)))

[VBBV]

%if true
 matpath = 'C\...\matFile\';
matfiles = dir(fullfile(matpath ,'*.mat'));
N1 = setdiff({matfiles.name},{'.','..'});

Also do these changes

[Susan]

Thank you!

Answer 1

[Kelly Kearney]

The dir command returns the path to each file in the folder field, so you need to append that to recreate the full path names for your files:

N1 = fullfile(matfiles(1).folder, setdiff({matfiles.name},{'.','..'}));

Although in this case, seeing that you're only looking for .mat files, I suggest using a more specific filter and eliminating the setdiff call:

matfiles = dir(fullfile(matpath, '*.mat'));
N1 = fullfile({matfiles.folder}, {matfiles.name});

Answer 2

[Jeff Miller]

You need the folder name at the beginning of the string you pass to load, maybe something like this:

for iFile = 1:numel(N1)
   s = [matpath '\' N1{iFile}];
   load(s);
end

[Stephen23]

It is recommended to use FULLFILE:

F = fullfile(matpath,N1{iFile});

and to load into an output variable:

S = load(F);

[Susan]

Thanks for your response.

for iFile = 1:numel(N1)
   F = fullfile(matpath,N1{iFile});
   S{iFile} = load(F);
end

read through the first mat file to the fifth one and then gives and error that

Error using load
Cannot read file C:\...\matFile\location2.mat.

Any idea? However, I can load ('C:\...\matFile\location2.mat') but when it runs a for loop I get this error. I think its because of running out of memory. I tried "fopen('all')" which replys [].