Random number in a file name, how to automate xlsread?

I would like to automate reading excel files into matlab.

And the file name is like: name_21-Sep-2011-12345678.xls

So basically I get one file from broker every day, and I could handle the date part in the file name, but then somehow the broker add a random number at the end of the file name which changes every day. So I need to know how to read this file using xlsread? How to handle the xxx part which is the random number?

filename = ['name_',datestr(datenum(today),'dd-mmm-yyyy'),xxx,'.xls']

Thanks a lot~~~~~~

Answer 1

[Fangjun Jiang]

If you know the file name partially, you can do this.

File=dir('name_21-Sep-2011-*.xls');

Hopefully, there is only one matched file, then you can do:

FileName=File(1).name

If it returns multiple files, then you need to find a way to narrow it down.

[Zoe Zhang]

I never used dir before :-0

I think that will work since the date is enough to narrow down to one file, thanks a lot~~~