Error saving file: Cannot create '<filename>.mat' because '<fullpath>' does not exist.

Hello,

I have tried every variation I can think of as well as Googled and cannot come up with a solution. I'm baffled as to why this is happening. Here's what's happening: I read in some files from my external hard drive, run them through my code, and then try to save the output back to my external hard drive. I have an absolute path "/Volumes/TOSHIBA EXT/...". It gets the input files just fine, but then it fails when I use the "save" function.

Specs: running R2011b on Mac OS X 10.6.8

Here's a bit of my code:

path_to_project_data = '/Volumes/TOSHIBA'' EXT''/preseis/Documents/Project'' Data''/' ;
matlab_save = '/Volumes/TOSHIBA'''' EXT''''/preseis/Documents/Project'''' Data''''/' ;
path_to_files2_3 = fullfile(path_to_project_data,'CyberShake/FFMs/FengABFSet/RuptureGenerator2_3/') ;
matlab_save2_3 = fullfile(matlab_save,'CyberShake/FFMs/FengABFSet/RuptureGenerator2_3/') ;
<do some stuff to create a structure variable "FFM">
name = FFM.event_id ; % a string event name identifier
eval(['save ''' matlab_save2_3 'MatlabFiles/FFM/' name '.mat'' FFM'])

----------

Output:

Error using save
Cannot create 'C218_0s0000h0000.mat' because '/Volumes/TOSHIBA' EXT'/preseis/Documents/Project'
Data'/CyberShake/FFMs/FengABFSet/RuptureGenerator2_3/MatlabFiles/FFM' does not exist.

This code does not work and I have tried the following variations:

String concatenation without using the "fullfile' function:

path_to_files2_3 = [path_to_project_data 'CyberShake/FFMs/FengABFSet/RuptureGenerator2_3/'] ;

Changing the save command:

eval(['save ' path_to_files2_3 'MatlabFiles/FFM/' name '.mat FFM'])
eval(['save ''' path_to_files2_3 'MatlabFiles/FFM/' name '.mat'' FFM'])
save([path_to_files2_3 'MatlabFiles/FFM/' name '.mat'],'FFM')

**as well as the above variations using matlab_save2_3 in place of path_to_files2_3

Changing the path_to_project_data variable:

path_to_project_data = '/Volumes/TOSHIBA EXT/preseis/Documents/Project Data/' ;
path_to_project_data = '/Volumes/TOSHIBA\ EXT/preseis/Documents/Project\ Data/' ;
path_to_project_data = '/Volumes/TOSHIBA'''' EXT''''/preseis/Documents/Project'''' Data''''/' ;

**as well as the above variations using matlab_save and every possible combination of the two together

I even typed in the command window:

save '/Volumes/..../<filename>.mat' FFM

*using* tabs to fill in the save string to make sure I wasn't mistyping anything...it still failed with the same message. I tried loading an existing file from the same directory and the "load" function works just file with the full file path I gave it. I am so confused and at my wits end.

Can someone please help me with this! Why won't "save" work, but "load" and my "system" calls work with these full file paths I've given??? Please and thank you!

[Elizabeth]

Hi Jessica,

Have you had any luck with this since May? I have the exact same issue -- except that it only arises sometimes when I run a piece of code. As I need to run this code 1000s of times....

[Elizabeth]

My new hypothesis: this is a bug, and actually the problem is that the file already exists. I've put a line to delete the file above the line where the file is save and am seeing if that will work. Could that possibly apply to you?

[Ramkumar]

Another probable reason is that you do not have 'write' access to the location where you want to write the file. This has happened to me before. The code which ran perfectly in my laptop and was able to save the file was not able to do so in my office computer. It gave me the same error you have mentioned. Then I realized that I was saving the file to a location where I did not have permission to save.

Check for this also..

Ram

[Stephen23]

Why on earth are you using eval just to call save ? Do NOT do this !

That practically guarantees that you will have buggy undebuggable code.

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_prog/command-vs-function-syntax.html

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

Why the heck are you doing this at all, with eval(), instead of calling save() as a function?

A_path = 'some string';
save(A_path, 'the_variable');

If you need EXT and whatever to be substituted in dynamically, then use sprintf to construct the file name:

series_name = 'CyberShake/FFMs/FengABFSet/RuptureGenerator2_3';
experiment_name = 'XY034'
A_path = sprintf('/your/base/directory/%s/%s.mat', series_name, experiment_name);
save(A_path, 'the_variable');

Answer 2

[Siluveru Kiran Kumar]

If you are using ubuntu os run matlab with root mode i.e in the terminal sudo ./matlab

Answer 3

[Arjun Sahdev]

I had the same problem while I was saving a string array in .mat format. The problem was that you have to give the filename accesible within the current operating directory. The operating directory is where your code is saved. Then moment I did that it worked. Another reason might be that you are speciying the path incorrectly.