Matlab Equivalent Of `endswith`: How To Filter List Of Filenames Regarding Their Extension?

Is there a MATLAB equivalent of the endswith function available in Python, Java etc.? I would like to filter a list of Strings by their endings, e.g. the list: a.tif b.jpg c.doc d.

Solution 1:

Probably quite efficient is to use regular expressions:

filelist = {'a.tif'
            'c.doc'
            'd.txt'
            'e.tif'}

filtered = regexp( filelist ,'(\w*.txt$)|(\w*.doc$)','match')
filtered = [filtered{:}]

Explanation:

(\w*.txt$) will return all filenames \w* which end $ with .txt and (\w*.doc$) will return all filenames \w* which end $ with .doc. The | is just the logical operator.

Especially if you just want to filter for one file extension, it is really handy:

fileExt = 'tif';
filtered = regexp( filelist ,['\w*.' fileExt '$'],'match')
filtered = [filtered{:}]

Filtering multiple file extensions is also possible, but you need to create a longer regex:

fileExt = {'doc','txt'};
dupe = @(x) repmat({x},1,numel(fileExt))
filter = [dupe('(\w*.'); fileExt(:).'; dupe('$)'); dupe('|')] %'

filtered = regexp( filelist, [filter{1:end-1}], 'match')
filtered = [filtered{:}]