Match character of one structure with character of other structure

Question

So, I have two folders at different locations and I loop through the files of one of these folders (A). I want to get the filename and foldername of the file in the other folder (B) which has the same name as the file I am currently looking at in my loop. I do this because I want the full filepath of the file with the same name in another folder with subfolders.

Here some code for explanation:

a_paths = dir("D:\folder1");
b_paths = dir("D:\folder2\**\*"); % this one has files in subfolders

for i = 1 :length(a_paths)
    [path,current_name,ext] = fileparts(a_paths(i).name);

    % does not work:
    matched_name = b_paths.name(b_paths.name == current_name);
    matched_folder = b_paths.folder(b_paths.name == current_name); 
end

But this does not work. I usually use R and obviously don't know how to work with these not-very-handy structure arrays in Matlab. How can I do this without needing to loop through all files in the other folder as well? Surely, there must be a better way?

Edit This here does what I want, but it's way too complicated to be the easiest way:

for i = 1 :length(a_paths)
    [path,current_name,ext] = fileparts(a_paths(i).name);
    for j = 1 :length(b_paths)
        [path,other_name,ext] = fileparts(a_paths(i).name);
        if current_name == other_name
            path = fullfile(b_paths(j).folder, current_name);
        end
    end
end

user_4363864 · Answer

You can use ismember() to check which elements of an array can be found in another array (or structure):

% List elements of both folder (and eventually subfolder with \**\)
A = dir('Path	o\A');
B = dir('Path	o\B');

% Get the filename or foldername in B that can be found in A
x = B(ismember({B.name},{A.name}));

% Eliminate the folders and construct the fullpath
duplicateB = fullfile({x(~[x.isdir]).folder},{x(~[x.isdir]).name})

You just need to get used to the matlab synthax:

() -> for indexing or function call
[] -> for array
{} -> for structure array or cell array

Match character of one structure with character of other structure

1 Answers