Copying multiple files in a different location

I have a bunch of files(around 1000) with the audio signals in them and I am trying to copy-paste them in another direction ( another folder). I would like to paste them with the same names but I do not want to use the dir function. Can anyone advise what other options do I have?

Many thanks in advance.

[Mario Malic]

How would you get names every single file you would like to move, do you know name of all files? I don't think it's possible to do it without dir.

[GreyHunter]

I know the names but they can be 1000 of data.

[Mario Malic]

if they follow some sequence, like B001.wav, B002.Wav, and so on, then you can combine sprintf with some loop, but if the files do not follow a sequence, then someone else might provide a solution you're looking for.

[GreyHunter]

No they do have specific sequence unfortunately. :( Thanks.

[Mario Malic]

dir is the way to go then.

[GreyHunter]

I am not allowed to use dir.

[Mario Malic]

Well, there's also ls, but it's quite similar to dir

[GreyHunter]

Can you please give me an exaple on how I can use the ls?

[Mario Malic]

List = ls('*.wav')

[Walter Roberson]

I am confused about whether they do or do not follow a specific sequence?

[Walter Roberson]

If they all start with a common prefix and have a common suffix then you can use copyfile with wildcards. For example,

copyfile('B*.wav', '../save_the_waves/')

Just make sure that the destination directory exists first.

[GreyHunter]

They do not follow specific sequence.

@Mario I am comfused how can I copy with the ls all the files and audio signals into another location

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

copy with the ls all the files and audio signals into another location

destination_directory = '../copy_of_files';
if ~exist(destination_directory, 'dir')
    mkdir(destination_directory);
end
copyfile( '*.wav', destination_directory)
copyfile( '*.jpg', destination_directory);

[GreyHunter]

thanks very much Walter, the only problem I have is that in the folder I have 20 files with different names and in each file has 10-15 audio signals and I would like to copy both and files and signals in another location.

The purpose of this is to read all this files and audios, filter the signals and then store them into another location same as it was, but now the signals are filtered.

[Walter Roberson]

Within any one file, how are the audio signals represented?

Could you confirm that you want to copy the files and you want to extract the signals from the files and write out the signals to the destination directory as well, as separate additional files?

To use ls to get filenames, use:

if ispc()
    S = ls('/b');
else
    S = ls('-1');
end
S = cellstr( regexp(S, '\r?\n', 'split') );
S(cellfun(@isempty, S)) = [];   %remove empty lines
S(ismember(S, {'.', '..'})) = [];  %remove . and ..

I do not guarantee the form for windows, as I do not have Windows running these days.

[GreyHunter]

see my example below:

1)I want to copy this file names one by one into another location with same file names.

In parallel with that I would like to read the below audio signals which is stored in the example 1 above and story it one by one and filter them and then save them in the new location into the Example1 file and so on.

So practically I would need to create identical file and audio file names but the audio should be filtered first and then save it into the new location. imagine I will have 20 files with different names not example, example1.. and in every file I will have 10 audio files with different names again.

I hope it makes sence and sorry for all this confusion causes.

[Walter Roberson]

Example1 and example2 appear to be directories (also known as folders) rather than files ??

Are you sure you are not permitted to use dir() ? When you do not know the directory and file names ahead of time, dir() is the best way to proceed. There are cases where ls can output misleading filenames.

[GreyHunter]

yes I am sure that I am not allowed to use dir.

what about if I have a text file which includes all the folder names and audio names?

I have created the below code

src = 'example';

fileFilter = '*.';

destination = 'example1';

files = ls(fullfile(src,fileFilter));

for fileIdx = 1:size(files,1)

filename = strtrim(string(files(fileIdx,:)));

srcPath = fullfile(src,filename);

destPath = fullfile(destination,filename);

copyfile(srcPath,destPath);

end

but i have an error with it:Error using copyfile

Cannot copy or move a file or directory onto itself.