Where do MATLAB-created .txt files get saved?

I'm a student looking to do some basic data analysis from files using MATLAB, and was learning how to use fopen and related commands, currently I'm making a dummy file and reading it using this code:

fileName = 'nums.txt';

x = 1:1:5;

y = [x;rand(1,5)];

fileID = fopen(fileName,'w');

fprintf(fileID,'%g %g\n',y);

fclose(fileID);

disp('file start');

type nums.txt

disp('file end');

fileID = fopen(fileName,'r');

formatSpec = '%g %g';

sizeA = size(y);

A = fscanf(fileID,formatSpec,sizeA)';

I just have one question: Where does MATLAB store this file? Is there a specified directory? And could I specify the full path of where the file gets saved?

Thank you!

Answer 1

[Jan]

If you do not specify a folder, the current directory is used. See

help cd
help pwd

Note, that pwd is just a wrapper function for cd , so prefer the later command.

Of course you can specify a folder:

fileName = fullfile(cd, 'nums.txt');
fileName = fullfile(tempdir, 'nums.txt');
fileName = 'D:\my\sub\folder\nums.txt'
... etc    

After starting Matlab the current folder can be defined differently according to the chosen preferences. It can be a fixed folder, the last active folder in the former Matlab session or the user folder, e.g. under Windows "%APPDATA%\MATLAB" or similar.

[Alexander Ketzle]

Super helpful and informative, thank you!