dirPlus

dirPlus will recursively collect a list of files/folders from a folder tree.

dirPlus

This code is an updated version of a utility function I originally posted as an answer to the following question on Stack Overflow: "How to get all files under a specific directory in MATLAB?" Although written in MATLAB version R2016b, I believe this should work for older versions as well (full testing still required).

dirPlus will recursively collect files/subdirectories within a folder that match a certain set of criteria. LIST = dirPlus(ROOTPATH) will search recursively through the folder tree beneath ROOTPATH and collect a cell array LIST of all files it finds. The list will contain the absolute paths to each file starting at ROOTPATH.

LIST = dirPlus(ROOTPATH, 'PropertyName', PropertyValue, ...) will modify how files and directories are selected, as well as the format of LIST, based on the property/value pairs specified. Valid properties that the user can set are:

GENERAL:

• 'Struct' - A logical value determining if the output LIST should instead be a structure array of the form returned by the dir function. If TRUE, LIST will be an N-by-1 structure array instead of a cell array.
• 'Depth' - A non-negative integer value for the maximum folder tree depth that dirPlus will search through. A value of 0 will only search in ROOTPATH, a value of 1 will search in ROOTPATH and its subfolders, etc. Default (and maximum allowable) value is the current recursion limit set on the root object (i.e. get(0, 'RecursionLimit')).
• 'ReturnDirs' - A logical value determining if the output will be a list of files or subdirectories. If TRUE, LIST will be a cell array of subdirectory names/paths. Default is FALSE.
• 'PrependPath' - A logical value determining if the full path from ROOTPATH to the file/subdirectory is prepended to each file in LIST. The default TRUE will prepend the full path, otherwise just the file/subdirectory name is returned. This setting is ignored if the 'Struct' argument is TRUE.

FILE-SPECIFIC:

• 'FileFilter' - A string defining a regular-expression pattern that will be applied to the file name. Only files matching the pattern will be included in LIST. Default is '' (i.e. all files are included).
• 'ValidateFcn' - A handle to a function that takes as input a structure of the form returned by the dir function and returns a logical value. This function will be applied to all files found and only files that have a TRUE return value will be included in LIST. Default is [] (i.e. all files are included).

DIRECTORY-SPECIFIC:

• 'DirFilter' - A string defining a regular-expression pattern that will be applied to the subdirectory name. Only subdirectories matching the pattern will be considered valid (i.e. included in LIST themselves or having their files included in LIST). Default is '' (i.e. all subdirectories are valid). The setting of the 'RecurseInvalid' argument determines if invalid subdirectories are still recursed down.
• 'ValidateDirFcn' - A handle to a function that takes as input a structure of the form returned by the dir function and returns a logical value. This function will be applied to all subdirectories found and only subdirectories that have a TRUE return value will be considered valid (i.e. included in LIST themselves or having their files included in LIST). Default is [] (i.e. all subdirectories are valid). The setting of the 'RecurseInvalid' argument determines if invalid subdirectories are still recursed down.
• 'RecurseInvalid' - A logical value determining if invalid subdirectories (as identified by the 'DirFilter' and 'ValidateDirFcn' arguments) should still be recursed down. Default is FALSE (i.e the recursive searching stops at invalid subdirectories).

Examples for how to use these options can be found in the demo script dirPlus_demo.m or in published form in dirPlus_demo.html.

Note: The code in the master branch may not be fully tested or stable. Stable, tested releases appear in the Releases tab. Additional information can be found on the MathWorks File Exchange submission page.