MATLAB: How to pass the filename entered from the user to execute a command in command prompt

Question

So what i need to do is input the filename from the user and then use this filename in the following way

data.file = input('Please enter the file name ');

status = dos('Extractdata data.file');

Here user will enter the filename which will be stored in 'data.file' and that filename has to go into the second line of code that i showed above. However if I write data.file it gives an error which is obvious. How to get around this? Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Answer 1

You need to concatenate the character array you have captured to the other part of the command:

status = dos(['Extractdata ',data.file]);

I would recommend against using the variable name "data.file" to capture that info, because you are unnecessarily using a MATLAB struct. Maybe just call it "filename", or something similar, which will just be a simple character array.