randomly access a file in matlab

f = dir( myfolder ); ridx = randi(numel(f)); disp( ['Chosen file is: ' f(ridx).name] );

when I run this code for 5 files in the directory the numel shows me 7 instead of 5 with two files with the names of '.' and '.." how can I ommit these two files??

Answer 1

[Sabarinathan Vadivelu]

Please specify the type of data you are reading from the current folder in this line.

f = dir(['myfolder\*.jpg']);

or any other formats.

Answer 2

[Jan]

"." is the current folder, while ".." is the parent folder. You can exclude them explicitly:

f = dir(myfolder);
name = {f.name};
f(strcmp(name, '.') || strcmp(name, '..')) = [];