Copy files based on presence in list

Hi all,

I am trying to copy specific files from different subfolders to a new folder. I managed to make a list of all the files I want to copy using the dir function, so I have a struct with the file names and folders. However, there are many duplicates in this list that I need to remove first. How can I do this?

After removing the duplicates, how can I copy the files in my list to a new folder? So I want Matlab to loop over all the subfolders and copy the files that are named in the struct. Hope you can help me with this!

Best,

Esther

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

If it's a duplicate, the destination file will be there. In that case, just skip that file. Something like

topLevelFolder = 'C:\wherever you want';
% Define the "new" destination folder.
destinationFolder = 'C:\new folder';
% Make sure it's empty.
existingFiles = dir(fullfile(destinationFolder, '*.*'))
if length(existingFiles) >= 3
    % It's not an empty folder.  There are files in it.
    fprintf('%s already exists.  I am expecting an empty folder');
    return;
end
% Create destination folder if it does not exist yet.
if ~isfolder(destinationFolder)
    mkdir(destinationFolder);
end
% Get a list of all files under the top level folder.
filePattern = fullfile(topLevelFolder, '**\*.*');
fileList = dir(filePattern);
% Loop over source files copying them to the destination folder.
for k = 1 : length(fileList)
    sourceFileName = fullfile(fileList(k).folder, fileList(k).name);
    destinationFileName = fullfile(destinationFolder, fileList(k).name);
    if isfile(destinationFileName)
        % File has already been copied over, so this name must be a duplicate.
        continue; % Skip to the next file.
    else
        % File does not exist yet so it's the first time seeing this source file name.
        copyfile(sourceFileName, destinationFileName);
    end
end

Answer 2

[Jan]

What exactly are "duplicates"? Which of them should be used? What does "removing" mean: from the list or delete the files?

List = dir('D:\Your\Folder\**\*.jpg');  % Recursive search
Name = {List.name};
[~, index] = unique(Name);  % Not repetitions in the names
List = List(index);
for k = 1:numel(List)
    SourceFile = fullfile(List(k).folder, List(k).name);
    DestFolder = 'D:\IdoNotKnow';
    copyfile(SourceFile, DestFolder);
end