Question

I have a question about the following code.

[name file] = uigetfile('*', 'Select an image');
if [name file] ~= 0
    %file found
end

Is there a way of saying that [name file] can be assigned to an array? For example, Filepath[2] = ui.getfile.. (this doesn’t work).

When I tried the following code, I only get the filename and not the path. Am I declaring this array wrong?

Filepath{2} = uigetfile({'*.wav;*.mp3;*.aac;*.ogg'}, 'Select a file');
%Filepath{2} = uigetfile('*', 'Select an image');
%noFile = Filepath(0);
%if Filepath[1]~= 0
%if Filepath ~= 0

disp('Loading signal');
disp(Filepath);
%disp(Filepath{0});
disp('Filepath{1}');
disp(Filepath{1});
disp('Filepath{2}');
disp(Filepath{2});

Answer 1

I think you may be confused about the syntax for multiple “output arguments” of a function. Unlike most programming languages, MATLAB allows functions to have multiple return values; these are called output arguments. When you have a function [a b] = foo(x), it is best to think of this as just the syntax to send the first output to a variable called a and the second output to a variable called b. Even though the syntax [a b] looks like an array, it is best to not think of it that way.

Here’s an example of uigetfile:

[filename, pathname] = uigetfile('*.m', 'Select a file');

which gives the filename and path of the selected file, in variables called filename and pathname, respectively.

filename =

foo.m


pathname =

/home/tobin/

But what I don’t understand is that this method returns zero if it was canceled or a filled array if it was successfull. So how can I check for zero (file not found)?

Why not try it out?

> [filename, pathname] = uigetfile('*', 'Select a file')

filename =

     0


pathname =

     0

It appears that both outputs are 0 if the uigetfile is cancelled. So you can do this:

[filename, pathname] = uigetfile('*', 'Select a file');
fullname = horzcat(pathname, filename);
if filename == 0
    fprintf('uigetfile was cancelled.\n');
else
    fprintf('user selected "%s".\n', fullname);
end