How to copy a file to multiple folders using the command line?

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I have tried to copy a file test.txt to multiple directories with one command:
for ii=0:5:175
for jj=0:3:90
newdir=sprintf('phi=%2dtheta=%2d',ii,jj);
mkdir(fullfile(newdir))
end
end
for ii=0:5:175
for jj=0:3:90
source_dir=sprintf('G:/SYSTEM MATRIX - MCNP/phi%2dtheta%2d',ii,jj);
copyfile('test.txt','source_dir')
end
end
But I didn't succeed. Is there a way to do that in one command so I can copy a file or even a folder to multiple directories?

Accepted Answer

Image Analyst
Image Analyst on 30 Dec 2016
What does "didn't succeed" mean? Did it finish with no errors but there were no files there? Or did it give an error message? copyfile() takes the destination folder as the second argument, not the source folder. As if that wasn't bad enough, you're passing the string 'sourcedir' instead of sourcedir so it's not even passing the string you want it to. To fix, get rid of the single quotes. And make sure all folders exist before you call copy file. exist(folder, 'dir') is useful for that purpose.
  4 Comments
viet le
viet le on 2 Jan 2017
thanks. but I think it is different my problem. I have only one file test.txt and I have to copy and paste this file to 1000 folders different.
Image Analyst
Image Analyst on 2 Jan 2017
Create the destination folder in a loop
baseFileName = 'whatever.dat';
inputFullFileName = fullfile(inputFolder, baseFileName);
for k = 1 : 1000
outputFolder = sprintf('...........whatever
if ~exist(outputFolder, 'dir')
mkdir(outputFolder);
end
outputFullFileName = fullfile(outputFolder, baseFileName);
copyfile(inputFullFileName, outputFullFileName);
end

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