MATLAB: Problem with identification of strings

Question

Good Mornig,

could you find a solution for this: if I input:

files = dir(fullfile(open_folder, '*140821*.txt'));

it finds a structure array, anyway, if I try with:

b=strcat('*','140821','*')
files = dir(fullfile(open_folder, 'b.txt'));

It doesn't find any.

I would like to name a 'b' and than find the related file in the directory but that doesn't seem the right way!!

Could you help me?

Answer 1

files = dir(fullfile(open_folder, [b '.txt']));

or

files = dir(fullfile(open_folder, strcat(b, '.txt')));

or

files = dir(fullfile(open_folder, sprintf('%s.txt', b)));

The last one is my personal preference, and I would build b the same way:

b = sprintf('*%d*', 140821);

Note that in 'b.txt' the b is just the character 'b', there's no reason matlab would interpret it as the variable b.