Efficient way to rename files adding prefix from higher rank folder

I'm trying to figure out a way to rename figure files in folders by adding a prefix which comes from a higher rank folder.

Right now, what I have is:

(many) Subject_folder > (many) SessionFolder > (one) FigureFolder > xxx.png and xxx.fig files to rename

My goal is to systematically rename .png and .fig files in order to get:

Subject_xxx.png and

Subject_xxx.fig

for each session of each different subject.

'Subject' prefix may vary in lenght, has no progressive numeration, and is always preceded by a '_'.

Thank you for any help you may provide.

Answer 1

[Jan]

% Assuming that the Subject_folder's are contained in D:\Your\Folder\ :
BasePath = 'D:\Your\Folder\';
BaseLen  = length(BasePath);
FileList = dir(fullfile(BasePath, '**\*.png'));
for k = 1:numel(FileList)
    Path    = FileList(k).folder;
    Name    = FileList(k).file;
    File    = fullfile(Path, Name);
    Subject = strtok(Path(BaseLen+1:end), '_');
    newFile = fullfile(Path, [Subject, '_', Name]);
    [status,msg] = movefile(File, newFile);
    if status ~= 1
        error(msg);
    end
end

By the way, if "many" means hundreds, such that 10'000 files are concerned, use the fasterhttps://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/29569-filerename instead of movefile.

[bugsterkafer]

Works great thanks Jan!

Answer 2

[Neuropragmatist]

You should look at fileparts:

https://uk.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/fileparts.html

And strsplit:

https://uk.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/strsplit.html?searchHighlight=delimiter&s_tid=doc_srchtitle

For example:

%% if these are your example filenames:
C:\file1\file2\file3\subject_folder\session_folder\figure_folder\xxx.png
C:\file1\file2\file3\subject_folder\session_folder\figure_folder\xxx.fig

%% fileparts:
>> [a,b,c] = fileparts('C:\file1\file2\file3\subject_folder\session_folder\figure_folder\xxx.png')

a =
    'C:\file1\file2\file3\subject_folder\session_folder\figure_folder'

b =
    'xxx'

c =
    '.png'
    
%% followed by strsplit:
>> filenames = strsplit(a,'\')

filenames =

  1×7 cell array

  Columns 1 through 6

    {'C:'}    {'file1'}    {'file2'}    {'file3'}    {'subject_folder'}    {'session_folder'}

  Column 7

    {'figure_folder'}

I'm sure you can work out what to do from there...

Hope this helps,

M.