How to iterate through the struct char to label a new struct correctly?

I know that when I create a structure, e.g.

fruits(1).apples = data1;
fruits(1).bananas = data2;

I obtain a structure with two fields, and each fields having their respective data1 and data2. What I am attempting to do is loosely based on this.

The same way that above I have labelled my fields "apples" and "bananas", I have a 9x1 field with the names of what I shall label my data fields (shown in the code below).

% List of all the desired files in the folder
%the names of my files are: sample_1, sample_10, sample_13, etc.
filePattern = fullfile(myFolder, 'sample*.mat'); %search for files
theFiles = dir(filePattern);
theFiles = natsortfiles(theFiles); %arrange the files names in numerical order

%the data is a 1x30 structure
for x = 1 : length(theFiles)
    baseFileName = theFiles(x).name; %e.g. for x =1 , baseFileName = 'sample_1.mat'
    data(1).baseFileName =nk('ref_K15rapidscan.mat','base_K15rapidscan.mat',baseFileName);
end
%nk is a function to process data and to give other data back. The data resulting from this is a 1x30 struct with 2 fields 

The problem is that I cannot simply write "data(1).baseFileName", as MATLAB doesn't recognise that baseFileName is a different char each time on the last line

data(1).baseFileName =nk('ref_K15rapidscan.mat','base_K15rapidscan.mat',baseFileName);

How can I end up with something like the image below?

(The image might make it look like I actually got it to work, but really I just changed the name of the fields (apple, pear banana, etc) by hand to sample_1, etc.

[Image Analyst]

What is this nk function or array you're using???

[Goncalo Costa]

This is just a function written by a colleague to process some data and give me some data back as a result. The data resulting from this function is in the form of a 1x30 struct with 2 fields as shown in the last image (I will rewire this onto the questions).

Answer 1

[Goncalo Costa]

I ended up solving it and I am placing here my answer:

% List of all the desired files in the folder
filePattern = fullfile(myFolder, 'sample*.mat'); %search for files
theFiles = dir(filePattern);
theFiles = natsortfiles(theFiles); %name of files and other info

%all data placed into a single struct w/ x fields
for x = 1 : length(theFiles)
    baseFileName = theFiles(x).name; 
    [path, name, ext] = fileparts(theFiles(x).name); 
    data(1).(name) =nk('ref.mat','base.mat',baseFileName);
end

[Voss]

FYI, this is the same as my answer, posted 12 minutes ago:

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/1917180-how-to-iterate-through-the-struct-char-to-label-a-new-struct-correctly#answer_1177630

[Stephen23]

Not that this is fragile data design: there are many characters which are valid in filenames which are not valid in fieldnames. When you get such a character, this code will fail.

For much more robust code which does not duplicate data in extra variables, see the answer I gave you earlier:

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/1916855-how-to-iterate-over-a-char-array-and-store-them-into-a-separate-array

Answer 2

[Oguz Kaan Hancioglu]

You can use eval function to use char arrays or strings as a matlab command.

data(1).baseFileName =nk('ref_K15rapidscan.mat','base_K15rapidscan.mat',eval(baseFileName));

[Goncalo Costa]

When I use this it tell me the following error

Unable to resolve the name sample_10.mat.

I think I need to separate the .mat from the rest of the files names, I tried to do this using fileparts, but it doesn't work either.

Answer 3

[Voss]

for x = 1 : length(theFiles)
    baseFileName = theFiles(x).name; %e.g. for x =1 , baseFileName = 'sample_1.mat'
    [~,fn,~] = fileparts(baseFileName);
    data(1).(fn) = nk('ref_K15rapidscan.mat','base_K15rapidscan.mat',baseFileName);
end