How to filter hidden files after calling MATLAB's dir function

Question

Using MATLAB, I need to extract an array of "valid" files from a directory. By valid, I mean they must not be a directory and they must not be a hidden file. Filtering out directories is easy enough because the structure that dir returns has a field called isDir. However I also need to filter out hidden files that MacOSX or Windows might put in the directory. What is the easiest cross-platform way to do this? I don't really understand how hidden files work.

No Matlab expert, but this is how hidden files work: on Mac OS X (and other Unix systems), their name starts with a period (`.`). On Windows, their "hidden" attribute is set. Windows hidden files are only hidden on a Windows filesystem, i.e. FAT or NTFS. — Fred Foo, Mar 08 '11 at 15:18

score 5 · Answer 1 · edited May 27 '14 at 15:50

5

Assuming all hidden files start with '.'. Here is a shortcut to remove them:

s = dir(target); % 'target' is the investigated directory

%remove hidden files
s = s(arrayfun(@(x) ~strcmp(x.name(1),'.'),s))

edited May 27 '14 at 15:50

dumbfingers

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answered Jul 05 '12 at 20:38

Amit Joshi

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score 5 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 06 '12 at 08:10

5

You can combine DIR and FILEATTRIB to check for hidden files.

folder = uigetdir('please choose directory');
fileList = dir(folder);

%# remove all folders
isBadFile = cat(1,fileList.isdir); %# all directories are bad

%# loop to identify hidden files 
for iFile = find(~isBadFile)' %'# loop only non-dirs
   %# on OSX, hidden files start with a dot
   isBadFile(iFile) = strcmp(fileList(iFile).name(1),'.');
   if ~isBadFile(iFile) && ispc
   %# check for hidden Windows files - only works on Windows
   [~,stats] = fileattrib(fullfile(folder,fileList(iFile).name));
   if stats.hidden
      isBadFile(iFile) = true;
   end
   end
end

%# remove bad files
fileList(isBadFile) = [];

edited Apr 06 '12 at 08:10

Jimbo

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answered Mar 08 '11 at 15:27

Jonas

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@gnovice: Thanks for the fix. Ah, copy-paste-forget, bane of my existence! – Jonas Mar 08 '11 at 16:41
Out of curiosity, is the `[~,out] = something()` syntax legal on some later version than I'm using? I usually call `~` as `trash` - but it still makes the assignment. – JnBrymn Mar 10 '11 at 12:24
@John Berryman: Yes, this has been legal since 2008x, if I recall correctly. The `~` assigns the output to nothing. – Jonas Mar 10 '11 at 12:43
1

The first two entries might not be . and .. - for instance if you have an Emacs temporary file starting with a # that will come first. – Brian Burns Sep 18 '11 at 20:34

How to filter hidden files after calling MATLAB's dir function

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