Removing Hidden Files on Windows

I need to create a list of all the excel files in a directory so that I can cycle through them. Here's what I've been using.

path='C:\Users\choudhara2\Desktop\Janelle''s File\';
sourceFiles=dir(fullfile(path,'*.xlsx'));

This works. I then need to remove any hidden files that may show up in sourceFiles. This is what I've written:

for k=length(sourceFiles):-1:1
    fname=sourceFiles(k).name
    if fname(1)=='.'
        sourceFiles(k)=[];
    end
end
sourceFiles(~cellfun('is empty',sourceFiles))

However I get the error: cellfun is only valid for types cell. Any suggestions to get around this without screwing up any of the code after that?

[Walter Roberson]

fullfile() not full file()

[Amul Choudhary]

Sorry thats just a type, Ill edit the question.

[Adam]

Doing this:

sourceFiles(k)=[];

deletes elements from your struct array so you will only be left with the remaining files anyway so you shouldn't need to do any isempty testing. Only a cell array can contain empty cells - if you set an element of a numeric or struct array (such as the output of dir) to [] it gets deleted instead.

I assume

'is empty'

is a typo too that should be 'isempty', but as I say shouldn't be needed anyway.

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

You should NOT overwrite path. It's an important built-in variable and overwriting it will cause tons of problems. Call it folder instead of path.

Next, if you specify a *.xlsx file pattern, you will NOT get hidden files like . and .. (dot and dot dot).

Even if you did, you would use isdir() to check for . and .. rather than ==.

Finally, don't delete rows from an array in a loop because the array shifts up after that. For example if you delete #4, then what was #4 is gone and the new #4 is what used to be #5. So on the next iteration you'll skip that #5 file entirely, and start again with what used to be #6. You should build a vector called "rowsToDelete" and then after the loop is done call sourceFiles(rowsToDelete) = []. This will avoid skipping any files. But again you shouldn't even need to use a loop because you won't have hidden files in the first place.

Answer 2

[Fangjun Jiang]

"path" is a MATLAB command/keyword. Try not to use it as variable name.

dir('*.xlsx') won't return "." and ".." so you don't need that processing.

sourceFiles is a struct array, not cell array. That is why the error was given.