An automatic way to change \ with / (windows vs. unix) only for "addpath"?

Is there an automatic way to change \ with / (windows vs. unix) only for "addpath"

As example, I would need to convert many addpaths from unix

addpath('/Users/XXX/Documents/...')

to windows:

addpath('C:\Users\YYY\Desktop\...')

Answer 1

[Cris LaPierre]

use fullfile to build your path. It will use the separator appropriate for your OS.

"fullfile replaces all forward slashes (/) with backslashes (\) on Windows. On UNIX® platforms, the backlash (\) character is a valid character in file names and is not replaced"

[Sim]

Thanks a lot! But, how I can I use fullfile for

addpath('...')

?

[Cris LaPierre]

However makes sense for your application. Perhaps

addpath(fullfile(...))

or

path = fullfile(...)

addpath(path)

You will need to supply the actual path to fullfile, including any differences in the path (except for the slashes). Here, for example, that is the "C:" and "YYY"

path = '/Users/XXX/Documents/';
newpath = replace(path, 'XXX','YYY');
newpath = fullfile('C:',newpath)

newpath = 'C:/Users/YYY/Documents/'

Since this code executes in a linux OS, fullfile preserves the forward slashes.

[Stephen23]

Although you probably want to avoid using the variable name path, especially when fiddling with the path:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/path.html

[Cris LaPierre]

+1

[Sim]

+1 as well!

Answer 2

[Austin M. Weber]

file_name = '/Users/XXX/Documents/...';
file_name = strrep(file_name,'/','\');
addpath(file_name)

Warning: Name is nonexistent or not a directory: /users/mss.system.A3HcnN/\Users\XXX\Documents\...

EDIT: Just to explain, I am using the strrep function (string replace) to replace any instances of / with \.

[Sim]

thanks a lot both @Austin M Weber and @Cris LaPierre!!! Very nice solutions! I would accept both solutions!!

Answer 3

[Image Analyst]

@Sim the above answers are correct but only partial -- they're incomplete. I understood that you need to do this for lots of files, not just one so those solutions need to be inserted into some code that will process all your m-files in the folder. If it was just a few files, you could just simply use the find/replace functionality to replace them all in the editor.

But since you probably have lots of files you probably want to process them all automatically. You can use the FAQ: Process a sequence of files

There is a code snippet there that you can modify so that it reads in m-files. Then, in the loop, for each file, you would call readlines, then loop over all cells calling strrep add the drive letter and (optionally) to replace the slashes. Something like

ca = readlines(thisFileName);
oldString = "addpath('/Users";
for kk = 1 : numel(ca)
    % Add C:
    ca{kk} = strrep(ca{kk}, oldString, "addpath('C:/Users");
end

Make sure you use double quotes around the string since there is a single quote in the string you want to replace.

Then call writelines to overwrite the file with the new lines.

writelines(ca, thisFileName);

MATLAB under Windows understands forward slashes (like unix uses) perfectly fine, so there is no need to switch the direction of the slashes. But you will need to add the drive letter, so you might as well do both. Once you add the drive letter I don't think it will work anymore in unix anyway so I don't think you can have one file work in both. If you wanted to do it dynamically, if you can find some way to detect the operating system then you could add or remove the drive letter in the loop depending on what the operating system is. Then you could use fullfile, or just simply leave them all as forward slashes, which Windows has no problem with.

If this helps, please vote for my answer.

[Cris LaPierre]

Note that the user account in the example also changes from 'XXX' to 'YYY"

[Sim]

Thanks a lot @Image Analyst!!! :-) :-)