FILE_NAME_SEQUENCE
Create an Increasing Sequence of Filenames

FILE_NAME_SEQUENCE is a MATLAB program which demonstrates ways of generating a sequence of file names with an embedded index that increases.

There are situations such as animations or parallel processing in which it is necessary to generate a sequence of file names which include an embedded index that increases. A simple example might be

        'fred0.txt', 'fred1.txt', 'fred2.txt'

A side issue arises when the number of files is large enough that the number of digits in the index will vary. Thus, if we are going to have 15 files, do we want to number them as

        'fred00.txt' through 'fred14.txt'

which means, for one thing, that they will alphabetize properly, or will we be satisfied with

        'fred0.txt' through 'fred14.txt' ?

Schemes for generating such a sequence in MATLAB can involve the num2str() function, the sprintf() function, or a more elaborate function called file_name_inc() which searches a string for embedded numeric data and increments it.

Licensing:

The computer code and data files described and made available on this web page are distributed under the GNU LGPL license.

Languages:

FILE_NAME_SEQUENCE is availabe in a C version and a C++ version and a FORTRAN77 version and a FORTRAN90 version and a MATLAB version.

Related Data and Programs:

FILUM, a MATLAB library which can work with information in text files.

Source Code:

file_name_inc.m numerically "increments" a file name.
timestamp.m returns the YMDHMS date as a timestamp.

Examples and Tests:

file_name_sequence.m is a script which demonstrates four ways of generating a file name sequence;
file_name_sequence_output.txt the output file;

You can go up one level to the MATLAB source codes.