tempname

Unique name for temporary file

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Syntax

tmpName = tempname
tmpName = tempname(folderName)

Description

example

tmpName = tempname returns a character vector containing a unique path for a temporary file in your system’s temporary folder.

example

tmpName = tempname(folderName) returns a unique path for a temporary file in the specified folder.

Examples

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Open Live Script

Create a temporary file name that has the extension, .dat, by concatenating two character vectors. 

tmpName = [tempname,'.dat'];
Open Live Script

Create a temporary file name for use in the C:\myTemporaryFiles folder.

tmpName = tempname('C:\myTemporaryFiles');
Open Live Script

Create a temporary file name. 

filename = tempname;

Create a new file with the temporary file name, and write data to the file. 

fileID = fopen(filename,'w');
fwrite(fileID,magic(5));
fclose(fileID);

Input Arguments

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Folder name, specified as a string scalar or a character vector containing the folder name.

Limitations

  • In most cases, tempname generates a universally unique identifier (UUID). However, if you run MATLAB® without JVM™ software, then tempname generates a random character vector using the CPU counter and time, which is not guaranteed to be unique. For more information about the MATLAB startup option that does not load JVM software, see Commonly Used Startup Options.

See Also

Topics

Introduced before R2006a

MATLAB Documentation

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