exist function says directory figures exists when it doesn't

For some reason, even though the directory figures does not exist, the command

exist('figures','dir')

is returning a 7 instead of a zero. I assumed this had to be something to do with my startup setup, but it appears not to be.

Could somebody explain why this is happening please?

I'm running R2019b on ubuntu 18.04

[Les Beckham]

I see the same thing on my 2020a installation. Seems a bit strange. However, using the command

>> what figures

Packages in folder C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2020a\toolbox\matlab\connector2\figures

connector  mls   

I see that figures is found on the Matlab path in a toolbox folder.

Apparently, if you are trying to detect whether 'figures' is a subfolder of the current folder you need to do this:

>> exist('.\figures', 'dir')

ans =

     0
     

The doc on exist doesn't make it clear that it searches the entire Matlab path for any folders with that name but it seems that that is what it does.

[Stephen23]

"The doc on exist doesn't make it clear that it searches the entire Matlab path..."

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/exist.html: "MATLAB searches starting at the top of the search path, and moving down until a result is found..."

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

Use isfolder(), R2017b or later. isfolder() does not search along the MATLAB search path.

[Leo Simon]

Perfect, thanks