Using movefile to rename files

Hi everyone,

I have a number of data files with .txt format which I want to rename. I use the following code to read the files:

Foldername = uigetdir('\'); % Choose raw data folder
folder = [Foldername,'\'];
folder_parts=regexp(folder,'\','split')';
files = dir(fullfile([folder],'*.txt') ); % ('*.txt' for finding only .txt);
file = {files.name}';

And after this point I want to change some of the file names. for example 'Cell4_pH6,6_2.txt' to 'Cell5_pH6,6_2'

Textfiles={files.name}';
for i=1:length(Textfiles)
   
    newfile=strrep(Textfiles(i,:),'Cell5','Cell6');
    oldfilename=convertCharsToStrings(Textfiles(i,:));
    newfilename=convertCharsToStrings(newfile);
    movefile(oldfilename,newfilename);
end

When I use the above commands I get an error:

Error using movefile

Cannot copy or move a file or directory onto itself.

How can I fix this?

Thank you!

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

You have a file where Cell5 does not occur in the name, so skip that one

Put this right after the for, as the first thing in the loop

if ~contains(Textfiles(i,:), 'Cell5', 'IgnoreCase', true)
    continue; % Skip this file.
end

Alternatively, or perhaps even better since it does not depend on any particular string leteral being in the name, you could do

if ~isequal(oldfilename, oldfilename)
    % Only rename if the filenames are different.
    movefile(oldfilename, newfilename);
end