Opening files with different names

I am using Matlab to read mat files generated during data collection.

The files have the following format: they start with either anterior, central, posterior, lateral or medial and end with a number (-10,-09,-08,-07,-06,-05,-04,-03,-02,-01,+00,+01,+02,+03,+04,+05).

Example: anterior-10.mat, central+02.mat

After analysis of the data I have mad for example "times_anterior-10.mat" file. These files however doesn't exist for every raw file.

I have two different scripts which I would like to run to further analise the data. I would like to run the 1st script if "times_*.mat" file doesn't exist and I would like to run the 2nd script if "times_*.mat" file exist.

[Stephen23]

Make a list of all filenames, then use ISFILE or EXIST on them.

What have you tried so far?

Answer 1

[Ram Sreekar]

Hi Bence Laczó ,

You can run different scripts based on the existence of the "times_*.mat" file by using the ‘exist’ function in MATLAB. You can refer to the example code given below.

% Check if the "times_*.mat" file exists
if exist('times_*.mat', 'file') == 2
    % Run the 2nd script if the file exists
    run('second_script.m');
else
    % Run the 1st script if the file doesn't exist
    run('first_script.m');
end

In this code, the ‘exist’ function is used to check if the file "times_*.mat" exists in the current directory. The function returns 2 if the file exists, and 0 otherwise. Based on this result, the appropriate script is executed using the run function.

Please make sure to replace "times_*.mat" with the actual file name required and the script names to the required scripts that you wish to run.

Hope this helps you resolve your query.