How to collate two mat files with similar name pattern from two different sub-folders?

Hi all,

I have a folder with subfolders containing multiple mat files that have a smiliar name pattern.

I would like to access each subfolder and collate two mat files that have similar name pattern. For example two files indicated red above both end in 'T001'. I would like to collate those two and save it as a separte file . Similalry, I would like to do the same for each pair of mat files that have similar name pattern ending . Number of mat files in each subfolder is the same and endings are the same. Can you help please?

I can list files and load them in a loop but not sure how to progress

clear all
clc

%% Specify each subfolder containing all mat files 
subfolder1 = 'C:\Users\whctc4\Desktop\Data\EWWD_ID001\Processed data\Xsens Awinda MTw';
subfolder2 = 'C:\Users\whctc4\Desktop\Data\EWWD_ID001\Processed data\Xsens Dot';

%% get  file names and start loading and collating files in a loop

all_Mt2files = dir(fullfile(subfolder1, '*.mat'));
all_Dotfiles = dir(fullfile(subfolder2, '*.mat'));

%% load files from subfolder 1
for k = 1:length(all_Mt2files) 
    F = fullfile(subfolder1,all_Mt2files(k).name);
    load(F); 
end

%% load files from subfolder 2
for k = 1:length(all_Dotfiles) 
    J = fullfile(subfolder2,all_Dotfiles(k).name);
    load(J); 
end

%% Collate loaded files according to name pattern

[Voss]

The best way to combine each pair of .mat files depends on the contents of the .mat files. For example, if they each contain only a matrix, should each pair of matrices be concatenated vertically, concatenated horizontally, concatenated in the third dimension, interleaved somehow, etc.? Are the matrices guaranteed to be compatible sizes for the way they should be combined? If the .mat files contain some other data structure, how should they be combined?

If you can upload a pair of .mat files and explain how they should be combined (maybe an example output .mat file, if available), it would be helpful.

[Tomaszzz]

Hi @Benjamin . thank you for your answer. I have uploaded two example mat files. These mat files are tables with variables in each column. In the attached examples are tables 1918x115. So ultimately, the end product of collating such mat files would be a single mat file table 1918x230.

Answer 1

[Jan]

Maybe you want:

all_Mt2files = dir(fullfile(subfolder1, '*.mat'));
all_Dotfiles = dir(fullfile(subfolder2, '*.mat'));

for k = 1:length(all_Mt2files) 
    F  = fullfile(subfolder1,all_Mt2files(k).name);
    TF = load(F); 
    J  = fullfile(subfolder2,all_Dotfiles(k).name);
    TJ = load(J);
    T  = join(TF, ZJ);
    % And now?
end

What exactly is a "single mat file table 1918x230"? Do you want to save T in a MAT file?

[Tomaszzz]

Thank you @Jan. Yes I would like to save T in mat file as a table. Curently it loads the mat files as a structure into the workspace and gives me the error:

Error using join (line 60)

First argument must be a string array, character vector, or cell array of character vectors.

Error in Untitled (line 12)

T = join(TF, TJ);

Re ''single mat file table 1918x230" = table that combines both attached mat files

Ultimately, I want the code to run through each pair of the mat files, collate each of those pairs in one table, and save as a mat file. So the end product will be 18 mat files instead of 36 in two seperate subfolders.

[Jan]

What do the MAT files contain? table objects? With which name?

What is the contents of TF and TJ after loading?

Maybe you need

T  = join(TF.nameOfYourTable, ZJ.nameOfYourOtherTable);
save(fullfile(subfolder1, ['Joined', all_Mt2files(k).name]), 'T');

[Tomaszzz]

@Jan Thank you, the above is exactly what I meant.

The mat files indded contain table objects. I did not know that I have to specify the name of the tables.