how can I select .mat file to load from part of the name?

I need to load the following files one by one, using a for loop, because at each iteration I have to do some calculation with the variables of these files:

110-1-D2-6-sum.mat

110-1-D3-7-sum.mat

110-1-E0-8-sum.mat

110-1-E0-12-sum.mat

How can I do this? The problem is that the name changes not only in the last number, but also in the letters. I would load them using part of the name (D2-6; D3-7....)

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

projectdir = pwd;    %or appropriate directory name
looking_for = 'D2-6';
dinfo = dir( fullfile(projectdir, ['*' looking_for '*.mat']) );
filenames = fullfile(projectdir, {dinfo.name});
num_files = length(filenames);
results = cell(num_files, 1);
for K = 1 : num_files
    this_file = filenames{K};
    results{K} = Process_a_file(this_file);
end

[Walter Roberson]

label = {'D2-6' 'D3-7' 'E0-8'...nlabel};
projectdir = pwd;    %or appropriate directory name
num_label = length(label);
results = cell(num_label, 1);
for K = 1 : num_label
    dinfo = dir( fullfile(projectdir, ['*' label{K} '*.mat']) );
    filename = fullfile(projectdir, dinfo.name);  %we are told there is exactly one
    results{K} = Process_a_file(filename);
end

[Pasquale]

It is quite perfect in this way. I have still a problem:

once I obtain the filename inside the loop for, how can I load it (and, consequently all its variables)?

I tried your solution, but the code does not recognize the variables inside the file, because it has not be loaded, I suppose

[Walter Roberson]

Process_a_file would be a function that you would provide that would accept the file name and do whatever was appropriate with it. That would probably include load()

datastruct = load(filename);  %returns a structure of all of the variables contained
var1 = datastruct.var1;       %extract a particular one into a more convenient form

[Pasquale]

With datastruct, it seems to work. Thanks a lot

Answer 2

[Pasquale]

Thanks for your answer. In my problem I have about 20 files with that kind of name. All of them must be loaded, but not together; that's why I need a for loop to load them one by one. Should I write all the "labels" inside looking_for in this way?

looking_for = ['D2-6' 'D3-7' 'E0-8'....]

[Walter Roberson]

You can click on "Comment on this Answer" instead of starting a new Answer.

[Walter Roberson]

The code I posted does load one by one. It loops through all of the file names that match the looking_for and processes them one at a time. Your sample display only happens to show one file for each particular combination of letter-number-dash-number and if that holds true then it would only match one file, but I wrote the code with the assumption that several might match.

The code above is not designed to look for multiple substrings; it would have to be modified for that.

[Pasquale]

Ok, thanks, I understood; surely this could be helpful for me. My problem is a bit different, and maybe simpler: as you said, I have only one file for each combination. So I would do something llike this:

label=[D2-6' 'D3-7' 'E0-8'...nlabel]

for i=1:length(label)

load(filename(label(i))

end

Is it possible?