read multiple excel files with beginning part of file name being similar

I have 4 excel files that all start with THA and there are 4 types(THA1, THA2, THA3 & THA4) the full file name for all 4 are like this: THA1_343fdf and I want to extract all four file names by filtering it with THA if possible. I can extract the data easily but struggling with extracting all 4 file names.

[Soniya Jain]

Can you tell how are you extracting the data for any 1 file?

[Ahisa]

Well, i know of several ways but was wondering, can i use the import tool to somehow do this?

[dpb]

d=dir(fullfile('yourrootfolder','THA*.*'));
for i=1:numel(d)
  tData=readtable(fullfile(d(i).folder,d(i)name));
  ...
end

You didn't provide the file type; replace the trailing '*' with it although with a spreadsheet you may want '.xls*' if possibly have been saved as various types...

[Ahisa]

the file type is an excel file and would want to use the .xls just incase

what does the " ... " mean in the code above?

[dpb]

Insert whatever you need to do with each file here before going on to the next...

But, what if somebody saves it as .xlsx which is default for current releases of Excel? Then your search pattern would fail because it would try to match .xls exactly. Or, you get the earlier version that somebody has later updated. It isn't always as clear as one would like. :)

[Ahisa]

oh ok, thank you! ill try this code later today

[Ahisa]

   tData=readtable(fullfile(d(i).folder,d(i)name));
                                            ↑
Error: Invalid expression. Check for missing multiplication operator, missing or unbalanced delimiters, or other
syntax error. To construct matrices, use brackets instead of parentheses.
 

when i ran the code, it gave me this error

[dpb]

You're missing the "." to the struct reference -- d(i).name

[Ahisa]

Error using readtable (line 198)
Unable to find or open 'C:\Users\R101951\Desktop\RB\New folder\d(i)name'. Check the path and filename or file
permissions.

fixed that but got this now

[dpb]

'C:\Users\R101951\Desktop\RB\New folder\d(i)name'. 

We need to see the code as you actually wrote it -- that error message indicates you somehow got the string 'd(i).name' in the fullfile() expression instead of the dir() struct variable d(i).name

You've got a set of quotes in there somewhere that don't belong.

[Ahisa]

d=dir(fullfile('C:\Users\R101951\Desktop\RB\New folder','THA*.*'));
for i=1:numel(d)
  tData=readtable(fullfile(d(i).folder,"d(i)name"));
  
end

[dpb]

 tData=readtable(fullfile(d(i).folder,"d(i)name"))

It's doing exactly what you told it to do -- it's looking for the literal string "d(i)name" as the file name, not the next file in the dir() struct d() array that you returned.

Look at the documentation for dir and the examples there and look at what the call returns in the variable d struct at the command line to understand what you're doing here.

The code is, as I wrote initially,

 tData=readtable(fullfile(d(i).folder,d(i)name));

Remove the quotes; they don't belong...

[Ahisa]

never mind, this is how it should look, correct?

d=dir(fullfile('C:\Users\R101951\Desktop\RB\New folder','THA*.*'));
for i=1:numel(d)
  tData=readtable(fullfile(d(i).folder,d(i).name));
  
end

Answer 1

[Jonas]

more something like that?

for type=1:4
    basepath='C:\Users\R101951\Desktop\RB\New folder\';
    currFile=dir([basepath 'THA' num2str(type) '*.xls']).name;
    data=readtable(currFile,.....);
end

the ' * ' is a wildcard for the '_343fdf' part which I assumed is not the same for every file you are interested in

[Ahisa]

         ↑
Error: Invalid expression. When calling a function or indexing a variable, use parentheses. Otherwise, check for
mismatched delimiters.
 

thanks for that, i tried yours b

ut got this error message