Matlab - remove part of string

Question

I have a list of strings that look like this:

/disk1/home/alb/main/directory1/image0001.png

I want to remove everything after the last / and end up with a string that looks like this:

/disk1/home/alb/main/directory1/

Is there a fast way to do this?

Thank you

Possible duplicate of How to get the path part of a filename? — sco1
– sco1, Commented Apr 27, 2016 at 23:21

Suever · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-27 19:49:31Z

5

You will want to use the first output of fileparts as it is guaranteed to work on all platforms. The fileparts function is a built-in designed to separate a path into it's directory, filename, and file extension.

string = '/disk1/home/alb/main/directory1/image0001.png'
part = fileparts(string);

If you really need that trailing slash (you shouldn't if you use fullfile to (correctly) construct a new path), then you can add it to the end using filesep.

part_with_slash = [part, filesep];

If for some reason you are trying to process this *nix file path on a Windows machine (which has a different file separator), Only then you could use the following regexp.

part = regexp(string, '.*/', 'match');

edited Apr 27, 2016 at 19:49

answered Apr 27, 2016 at 19:33

Suever

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3 Comments

mgilbert Over a year ago

Forgot about this function while answering, removed my answer since this is definitely the best solution. +1 for platform independence

sco1 Over a year ago

Fun fact: fileparts just uses find to locate locations of /, \, and the last .

Suever Over a year ago

@excaza And does all of the nice checking to ensure compatibility with UNC paths and cases where you only pass it a filename with no leading directory :)

Felipe Sulser · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-27 19:31:17Z

1

You can use a regex:

str = "/path/to/file.png"

regexprep(str,'([A-Za-z0-9]\.png)?','once')

The ? makes it lazy, this is, the shortest match possible.

answered Apr 27, 2016 at 19:31

Felipe Sulser

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1 Comment

AL B Over a year ago

thank you, this works really well in the example i gave. My name of directories is a little more complicated, i gave a simpler version to make things simpler. My string looks like this : '/disk1/home/alb/main/directory1/direct1_subdir1_image0001.png' When i use your solution it removes the png but not the whole direct1_subdir1_imag0001. Any ideas how to solve this?

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