dir (MATLAB Function Reference)

Display a directory listing

Graphical Interface

As an alternative to the dir function, use the Current Directory browser. To open it, select Current Directory from the View menu in the MATLAB desktop.

Syntax

dir
dir name
files = dir('name')

Description

dir lists the files in the current working directory.

dir name lists the specified files. The name argument can be a pathname, filename, or can include both. You can use absolute and relative pathnames and wildcards.

files = dir('directory') returns the list of files in the specified directory (or the current directory, if dirname is not specified) to an m-by-1 structure with the fields:

name
Filename

date
Modification date

bytes
Number of bytes allocated to the file

isdir
1 if name is a directory; 0 if not

`name`	Filename
`date`	Modification date
`bytes`	Number of bytes allocated to the file
`isdir`	`1` if name is a directory; `0` if not

Examples

To view the MAT files in your current working directory,

dir *java*.mat
java_array.mat  javafrmobj.mat  testjava.mat

To view the M-files in the MATLAB audio directory, type

dir(fullfile(matlabroot,'toolbox/matlab/audio/*.m'))

Contents.m  lin2mu.m    sound.m     wavread.m   
auread.m    mu2lin.m    soundsc.m   wavrecord.m 
auwrite.m   saxis.m     wavplay.m   wavwrite.m

To return the list of files to the variable audio_files, type

audio_files=dir(fullfile(matlabroot,'toolbox/matlab/audio/*.m'))

MATLAB returns the information in a structure array.

audio_files = 
12x1 struct array with fields:
    name
    date
    bytes
    isdir

Index into the structure to access a particular item. For example,

audio_files(3).name
ans =
auwrite.m

See Also
cd, delete, filebrowser, ls, type, what

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