REMOVE delete file or empty directory

Matlab or GNU Octave delete() has trouble with not being able to delete open files on Windows. This function mitigates that limitation by returning a boolean success status.

function ok = remove(p)
arguments
  p {mustBeTextScalar}
end

ok = false;

if ~stdlib.exists(p)
  return
end

lastwarn('')

try %#ok<*TRYNC>
  delete(p);
  ok = true;
end

[~, id] = lastwarn();

if strcmp(id, 'MATLAB:DELETE:FileNotFound')
  ok = false;
end


end

Published with MATLAB® R2025a