I want to load an ASCII-file using this syntax:
load('10-May-data.dat')
The returned output variable name should be X10_May_data.
Is there a way to get the variable name in Matlab? If I want to use regular expression to do the translation, how can I do it? For example, put an X before any underscores or digits in the filename and replace any other non-alphabetic characters with underscores.
The who function returns the names of variables in matlab. It also has a built-in regexp for selecting certain items:
X10_May_data = [1 2 3];
save X10_May_data.mat X10_May_data
clear
load X10_May_data.mat
w = who('-regexp','X*')
w =
'X10_May_data'
You can then operate on w{1} to do any substitutions you want. For example, use the strrep function for simple modifications of a string:
newvar = strrep(w{1},'May','latest')
newvar =
X10_latest_data
For more complex modifications, use regexp or regexprep. When you have the new name, you can assign it with eval:
eval([newvar '=' w{1}]) % like typing "X10_latest_data = X10_May_data"
X10_latest_data =
1 2 3
[edit] PS I agree with the comments that eval is usually a bad idea; but sometimes you just need to get something done :) For alternative approaches, see the matlab page on the topic.
eval is almost always a terrible idea. Please see this answer of mine where I lengthily explain that.
'10-May-data.dat'created? Withsave? Is it actually a MAT-file despite the extension?s = load('10-May-data.dat')return? Or are you just trying to dofname = '10-May-data.dat';str = strsplit(fname,{'-','.'});vname = ['X' strjoin(str(1:end-1),'_')]?load