Is there a way to save the c3d files using the uigetfile function in the order that you select rather than have them be imported in alphabetical order?

In the following lines I am trying to import .c3d files (which are files that contain 3D data from trials captured with motion capture software (vicon), and processed through the vicon nexus software. See the Trials.zip folder for the c3d jump trials and since I can only upload a max of 5MB of files/data, I have uploaded only 3 unique c3d files.

To read the c3d files I am using the btk (biomechanical toolkit)... I have attached the btk file that you need to add to the path when you run your script.

Now what I have been trying to do is save the .c3d files in the order that I select them from the dialog box for both versions of my script. However what has happened is that neither version imports/saves the files in the order that I select my c3d jumps. For example: if I click on the "Drop Jump.c3d" file, followed by "Reverse Drop Jump01.c3d" file... and finally the "Drop Jump Toe in01.c3d" file, that's how I would like them to be ordered on the

 file_list

For the 2nd version I tried implementing the listdlg function but it does not really do much.

So I will restate my question again... Is there a way to either read the c3d files using uigetfile in the order that you select (which would make it the chronological order in my estimation) rather than have them be read/saved/arranged in alphabetical order?

I appreciate any help I can get.

Leo

1st version of my script

%This is the original code I had where I was relying solely on the
%uigetfile to read the c3d files

[file_list, path_n] = uigetfile('.c3d', 'Multiselect', 'on');

if iscell(file_list) ==0
    file_list={file_list}
end


for i=1:length(file_list)
    filename(i)=btkReadAcquisition(char(file_list(:,i)));
    
    %Get jump type
    
    
    %parse data
    [angles(i), anglesInfo(i)]=btkGetAngles(filename(i));
    [moments(i), momentsInfo(i)]=btkGetMoments(filename(i));
%     [powers(i), powersInfo(i)]=btkGetPowers(filename(i));
%     Events(i)=btkGetEvents(filename(i));
    f2(i) = btkGetPointFrequency(filename(i));
    [forces(i), forcesInfo(i)] = btkGetForces(filename(i));
%     [forceplates{i}, forceplatesInfo{i}] = btkGetForcePlatforms(filename(i));
    analog_data(i)= btkGetAnalogs(filename(i));
end

%%

2nd version

[file_list,path_n] = uigetfile('.c3d', 'Select files', 'MultiSelect', 'on');

if iscell(file_list) == 0
    file_list = {file_list};
end

% Display custom dialog box to select files in the order they were selected
[file_index,~] = listdlg('PromptString','Select files in the order you want them to appear:',...
    'ListString',file_list,...
    'ListSize',[300 300],...
    'SelectionMode','multiple');

file_list_sorted = file_list(file_index);

for i = 1:length(file_list_sorted)
    % Read the file
    filename = btkReadAcquisition(fullfile(path_n,file_list_sorted{i}));
    
    % Get angles, moments, forces, etc.
    [angles(i), anglesInfo(i)] = btkGetAngles(filename);
    [moments(i), momentsInfo(i)] = btkGetMoments(filename);
    f2(i) = btkGetPointFrequency(filename);
    [forces(i), forcesInfo(i)] = btkGetForces(filename);
    analog_data(i) = btkGetAnalogs(filename);
end

[Mathieu NOE]

hmm

I don't understand where you have a problem

both methods work for me ... the list is ordered according how I selected the files

[Leutrim Mehmeti]

Hopefully this picture is not too blurry.

The order of which I selected my c3d files was:

1st) drop jump;

2nd) reverse drop jump 01;

3rd) Reverse Toe in02;

4th) Reverse Toe in Extreme01

...

The order of my files saved in file_list can be seen above in the picture.

Hopefully this makes it clear!

[Mathieu NOE]

yes ok I see the difference on your side

my own trial with your first method :

[file_list, path_n] = uigetfile('.m', 'Multiselect', 'on');

the picture shows the 5 files I selected (red rectangle)

and this is what is in the file list cell array :

file_list' =

{'gaussian_fit.m' }

{'demo_smart_smooth3.m' }

{'demo_fft_filters_mat2.m'}

{'demo_fft_filters_wav.m' }

{'myspecgram_demo3.m' }

maybe the problem is that the list get re-ordered in another way in the blue rectangle UI

but the at least the file list (cell array) is reflecting exactly how I picked the files (red rectangle)

[Mathieu NOE]

and with the second method

I selected those files

and the result is correct to me :

file_list_sorted' =

{'gaussian_fit.m' }

{'demo_fft_filters_mat2.m' }

{'myspecgram_demo3.m' }

{'number_of_days_of_each_month.m'}

[Walter Roberson]

@Mathieu NOE

The user would like to (for example) click myspecgram_demo3.m first, then number_of_days_each_month.m second and so on for the other two, and have the tool return the names (or indices) in the order they clicked, rather than in the order presented by the widget

[Mathieu NOE]

@Walter Roberson

thanks for making it clear now (at least for me)

seems the topic has been around for a while , just wonder why TMW never changed their logic - I assumed there must a home made solution somewhere on the Fex that address that issue. have not really searched yet.

how do i keep the click order on a uigetfile selection? - MATLAB Answers - MATLAB Central (mathworks.com)

Load multiple files into GUI, in specific order - MATLAB Answers - MATLAB Central (mathworks.com)

[Walter Roberson]

@Mathieu NOE

The Mathworks logic is that it is better to call into the native operating system file selectors, so that you have consistent look-and-feel with the rest of the operating system, and you get to take advantage of whatever facilities the operating system may build in. For example when Microsoft Windows 11 Fall 2023 incorporates Chat-GPT into its file selection boxes, the facility will show up automatically.

[Mathieu NOE]

@Walter Roberson

thank you for taking the time to explain this in detail

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

uigetfile() calls out to native operating system facilities. There is no control over the order it returns items.

If you do not need to allow directory selection then you can dir() and throw the file names into a selection box, using the selection callbacks to record the order the user clicks. I did pretty much that at some point, to provide an improved multiselect experience, but I do not recall the details right now.

[Leutrim Mehmeti]

That's why I thought I'd get the listdlg to do that job but it does nothing different than what I get by just using the uigetfile.

Also I noticed that 'file_index' always takes the files from an ascending order i.e. if I choose the 5th ranked item on my folder to be my first selected file, then the 9th as my 2nd, then the fourth as my third... instead of file_index returning 1 9 4, it gets me 1, 4, 9. Not sure why it has to be this complicated to just pick random files from my folder.

Again any help with this would be very welcome!

[Walter Roberson]

h = uicontrol('style', 'listbox', 'max', 2)

Now set Callback . You will get called back for every click on the list. You will not want each selection (even of groups) to overwrite all previous selections, so you will need to track which items have been selected so far, and to un-select you will need the user to click back on the some item -- so when you get a selected item you will need to check if it is already selected and if so remove it from the selection list.

[Leutrim Mehmeti]

Okay so this is how far I have gotten.

If I just run the following I get nothing different than what I used to get with my previous attempts, however, if I run everything up to the following line:

file_list = get(listbox, 'String');

then I scroll down and manually change in the Figure...

(listbox, 'Value');

I get exactly what I need.

Is there a better way of doing this or is this as good as it is ever going to get?

See the full code including the function below!!

[file_list, path_n] = uigetfile('.c3d', 'Select files', 'MultiSelect', 'on');

if iscell(file_list) == 0
    file_list = {file_list};
end

% Create listbox
figure('Units', 'normalized', 'Position', [0.4, 0.4, 0.2, 0.2]);
listbox = uicontrol('Style', 'listbox', 'String', file_list, 'Max', length(file_list), ...
    'Min', 1, 'Units', 'normalized', 'Position', [0.1, 0.1, 0.8, 0.8]);

% Create button to sort files
button = uicontrol('Style', 'pushbutton', 'String', 'Sort Files', 'Units', 'normalized', ...
    'Position', [0.4, 0.01, 0.2, 0.08], 'Callback', {@sort_files_callback, listbox});



function sort_files_callback(hObject, eventdata, listbox)
    % Get the selected file names
    file_list = get(listbox, 'String');
    file_index = get(listbox, 'Value');
    sorted_files = file_list(file_index);
    
    % Save the sorted file names to a variable or do something else with them
    disp(sorted_files);
    files_sorted_final=sorted_files;
end