Copy a user selected folder

I am try to create a prompt where the user can select a folder and then this folder is copied to a new locationsuch as:

file = input('What folder would you like to copy?');

selected_dir = uigetdir();

and the copy the selected folder to a new location: i.e

test Folder source = selected_dir

copyfile('test Folder source','C:\TEMP\test Folder destination')

if there a clean way to make such a function?

Answer 1

[Ashutosh Thakur]

Hello Ian,

Based on the description, I understand that you want to upload a user-selected folder to a new location, i.e., in a new folder. This can be achieved by leveraging the uigetdir function to get the selected directory as well as the destination directory. You can then construct the final path from these values and use the copyfile function to copy the contents from the source to the destination folder. The following links can be leveraged for using the uigetdir and copyfile functions in MATLAB:

• https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/uigetdir.html.
• https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/copyfile.html.

The following sample code can be referred to implement the above-mentioned approach:

% Prompt user to select a folder
selected_dir = uigetdir('', 'Select the folder you want to copy');
    
% Check if the user canceled the folder selection
if selected_dir == 0
    disp('No folder selected. Exiting.');
    return;
end
    
% Prompt user to input the destination folder path
dest_dir = uigetdir('', 'Select the destination folder');
    
% Check if the user canceled the destination folder selection
if dest_dir == 0
    disp('No destination folder selected. Exiting.');   
    return;
end
    
% Construct the full path for the destination folder
[~, folderName, ~] = fileparts(selected_dir);
dest_dir_full = fullfile(dest_dir, folderName);
    
% Copy the selected folder to the destination
try
    copyfile(selected_dir, dest_dir_full);
    fprintf('Folder "%s" successfully copied to "%s".\n', selected_dir, dest_dir_full);
catch ME
    fprintf('Failed to copy folder "%s" to "%s".\n', selected_dir, dest_dir_full);
    disp(ME.message);
end

Additionally these links would also be helpful:

• https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/fileparts.html.
• https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/fullfile.html.

I hope this information helps you!

[Ian Hogan]

Thanks this is what i was looking for.