MATLAB: Load files from folder by extension

Question

What is the easiest way to load all files from a folder with the same extension into MATLAB?

Previous solutions by me:

%%% Will load a file if its filename is provided
%%% USAGE: (Best save data to a variable to work with it.)
%%% >> x = loadwrapper('<file_name>')
%%% ... and then use 'x' all the way you want.
%%% <file_name> works with absolute and relative paths, too.

function [ loaded_data ] = loadwrapper( file_name )

    files = dir(file_name);
    loaded_data = load(files.name);

end

and

%%% put this in a new script, in a function it WILL NOT WORK!
%%% and fix your paths, ofc. i left mine in here on purpose.


%%% SETTINGS
folderName='/home/user/folder/';
extension='*.dat';


%%% CODE
concattedString=strcat(folderName, extension);
fileSet=dir(concattedString); 

% loop from 1 through to the amount of rows
for i = 1:length(fileSet)

    % load file with absolute path, 
    % the fileSet provides just the single filename
    load (strcat(folderName, fileSet(i).name)); 

end


%%% TIDY UP
%%% only imported files shall stay in workspace area
clear folderName;
clear extension;
clear concattedString;
clear fileSet;
clear i;

Eitan T Eitan T · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-04T12:54:26

You can use dir to get all desired files. Then you can iterate over them with a for loop and call load for each. For example, the following:

files = dir('C:\myfolder\*.txt');
for k = 1:length(files)
    load(files(k).name, '-ascii')
end

loads all files in "C:\myfolder" with the extension "txt".

MATLAB: Load files from folder by extension

2 Answers