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From: saneman on 4 May 2008 09:51
I would like to store the number of files in the current dir in a
variable. In a unix shell this can be done with:


ls -l | awk '!/^d/{print }' | wc -l

or

ls -1 | wc -l


But matlab will only accept the second command. If I try the first I get:

a = unix(ls -l | awk '!/^d/{print }' | wc -l)

??? Error: File: test.m Line: 4 Column: 22
Unexpected MATLAB expression.

I have also tried to insert quotes:

a = unix('ls -l | awk '!/^d/{print }' | wc -l')

But it gives the same error. How do I run the above commmand?
From: Bruno Luong on 4 May 2008 13:54
unix command requires a string as input

Strings in MATLAB are braketed by quote "'".
If you want to insert a quote inside a string, then put two
consecutive quotes (this is MATLAB convension).

cmdstring = 'ls -l | awk ''!/^d/{print }'' | wc -l';
[status result] = unix(cmdstring)

Alternatively you could use MATLAB command dir.

Bruno


From: Walter Roberson on 4 May 2008 13:58
In article <481dbf56$0$90273$14726298(a)news.sunsite.dk>,
saneman <ddd(a)sdf.com> wrote:

>a = unix('ls -l | awk '!/^d/{print }' | wc -l')

The second ' ends the string. You need

a = unix('ls -l | awk ''!/^d/{print}'' | wc -l')


On the other hand, Matlab arrives with perl installed, so you
can run the whole thing in perl instead.

> I would like to store the number of files in the current dir in a
> variable.

fids = dir;
a = sum(~[fids.isdir]);
--
Q: Why did the chicken cross the Mobius strip?

A: There were manifold reasons.
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